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OF  CALIFORNIA 

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THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 


Empress  3xttmtk 


A  MEMOIR 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 
1914 


OOPYBIGHT,  1913, 

bt  dodd,  mead  and  company 


PREFACE 

Memoirs  of  Royal  personages  form  not  the  least 
interesting  part  of  the  whole  vast  field  of  biog- 
raphy, in  spite  of  the  fact  that  such  memoirs  differ 
from  the  lives  of  most  persons  in  a  private  station 
because  of  the  reticence  and  discretion  which  are 
necessary,  especially  in  regard  to  affairs  of  State 
and  political  characters.  It  is  often  not  until  a 
whole  generation  has  passed  that  it  is  possible  to 
publish  a  full  biography  of  a  member  of  a  Royal 
House,  and  in  the  meantime  the  exalted  rank  of 
the  subject  operates  both  to  enhance  and  to  dimin- 
ish the  interest  of  the  memoir. 

This  is  also  true  in  a  modified  degree  of  states- 
men, of  whom  full  and  frank  biographies  are  sel- 
dom possible  until  their  political  associates  and 
rivals  have  alike  disappeared  from  the  scene. 
This  necessary  delay  is  a  test  of  the  subject's  great- 
ness, for  it  has  sometimes  happened  that  by  the 
time  a  full  memoir  can  be  published  the  public  in- 
terest in  the  individual  has  waned. 

By  heredity,  by  training,  by  all  the  circum- 
stances of  their  lives.  Royal  personages  form  a 
caste  apart;  and  though  their  lot  may  seem  to  some 
persons  enviable,  it  is  often  not  realised  how  great 
are  the  sacrifices  of  happiness  and  contentment 


vi  PREFACE 

which  they  are  called  upon  to  make  as  the  inevit- 
able consequence  of  their  exalted  position. 

The  Empress  Frederick  presents  an  extraordin- 
ary example  of  what  this  exalted  position  may 
bring  in  the  way  of  both  happiness  and  suffering. 
Her  life  has  the  added  interest  that,  quite  apart 
from  her  rank,  she  possessed  an  intensely  vivid  and 
human  personahty.  History  furnishes  examples 
of  many  Royal  personages  who  have  been,  so  to 
speak,  crushed  and  stunted  in  their  intellectual  and 
spiritual  growth  by  the  restraints  of  their  position. 

Not  so  the  subject  of  this  memoir.  The  Em- 
press was  a  woman  of  remarkable  moral  and  in- 
tellectual qualities — indeed,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see 
that,  had  she  been  born  in  a  private  station,  she 
would  have  attained  certainly  distinction,  and  very 
possibly  eminence,  in  some  branch  of  art,  letters, 
or  science.  Her  rank,  far  from  crushing  and 
stunting  her  powers,  had  the  effect  of  diffusing 
her  intellectual  interests  over  many  fields,  and  per- 
haps laid  her  open  to  the  charge  of  dilettanteism. 
But  such  a  charge  cannot  really  be  maintained  in 
view  of  the  solid  constructive  work  which  she 
achieved,  both  in  the  field  of  philanthropy  and  in 
that  of  the  application  of  art  to  industry.  The  ex- 
acting mental  discipline  which  she  underwent  at 
the  hands  of  her  father,  though  it  was  in  some 
respects  ill-advised  as  her  life  turned  out,  at  any 
rate  supplied  her  with  the  habit  of  mental  concen- 
tration which  enabled  her  to  carry  out  those  prac- 


PREFACE  vii 

tical  and  lasting  enterprises  with  which  her  name 
in  Germany  should  ever  be  associated.  Her  early 
training  disciplined  her  eager,  natural  enthusiasm 
for  all  that  was  good  and  serviceable  to  humanity, 
and  directed  it  especially  to  the  welfare  of  soldiers 
and  of  women  and  children.  She  was  "a  doer  of 
the  Word  and  not  a  hearer  only."  All  through 
her  life  one  is  perhaps  most  profoundly  impressed 
by  her  inexhaustible  energy;  her  sense  of  the  tre- 
mendous importance  and  interest  of  life,  of  the 
wonders  of  knowledge,  of  the  delights  of  art  and 
Hterature,  and  of  all  that  there  is  to  do  and  to  feel 
and  to  think  in  the  short  years  that  are  given  us  on 
earth. 

One  of  the  greatest  dangers  to  which  Royal 
personages  are  exposed  by  the  circumstances  of 
their  position  is  that  of  falling  into  an  attitude 
of  gentle  cynicism.  Naturally  they  are  often 
brought  into  contact  with  the  seamy  side  of  human 
nature,  while  at  the  same  time  they  are  not  perhaps 
so  well  acquainted  with  its  better  side,  as  are  per- 
sons of  less  exalted  rank.  That  tlie  cleverer 
among  them  should  take  up  an  attitude  of  humor- 
ous toleration  of  the  whole  human  comedy  is  con- 
sequently very  natural. 

It  is  no  small  testimony  to  the  Empress 
Frederick's  moral  greatness  that,  though  she  had 
experiences  in  plenty  of  the  bad  side  of  human 
nature,  she  was  never  tempted  to  relapse  into  such 
an  attitude.     No  one  was  ever  less  of  a  cynic. 


viii  PREFACE 

She  was  full  of  intense  passionate  enthusiasms  and 
of  a  profound  sympathy  for  the  unfortunate,  and 
the  disinherited  of  the  earth.  In  her  warm  heart 
there  was  no  room  for  hatred  or  for  contempt  of 
others,  and  she  was  equally  incapable  of  shrugging 
her  shoulders  at  the  foibles  and  follies  of  poor 
humanity. 

This  eagerness  to  be  up  and  doing  was,  how- 
ever, combined,  as  has  been  often  seen  in  the  his- 
tory of  mankind,  with  a  touching  faith  in  the  power 
of  logic  and  reason.  It  was  not  exactly  that  the 
Empress  held  too  high  an  opinion  of  human  nature, 
but  she  undoubtedly  showed  too  Uttle  appreciation 
of  himaan  stupidity  and,  we  must  add,  of  human 
malice.  She  had  been  brought  up  with  kindly, 
honourable,  well-bred,  and,  on  the  whole,  very  in- 
telligent people,  and  when  she  came  into  rough 
collision  with  less  agreeable  qualities  of  human 
nature,  she  suffered  intensely.  But  she  was  not 
soured  as  a  less  noble  nature  might  have  been;  on 
the  contrary,  she  continued  to  the  end  of  her  life 
always  to  believe  the  best  of  people,  always  to 
assume  that  they  are  actuated  by  good  motives,  as 
well  as  by  reason  and  common-sense.  She  seems 
to  have  missed  the  key  to  the  oddities  and  the 
vagaries,  as  well  as  to  the  baser  qualities  of  human 
nature,  and  therein  lies,  perhaps,  the  secret  of  the 
tragedy  of  her  life. 

That  tragedy,  as  we  know,  was  greatly  enhanced 
by  the  singular  blows  of  fate.     Her  rank  had, 


PREFACE  ix 

strangely  enough,  given  her  a  marriage  of  love 
and  affection  more  real  and  more  lasting  than 
often  falls  to  the  lot  of  private  persons.  But  the 
husband  whom  she  adored,  as  well  as  two  idolized 
children,  were  taken  from  her. 

It  was  her  fate  also  to  be  constantly  misunder- 
stood ;  to  see  the  purity  of  her  motives  doubted  and 
her  most  innocent  actions  misconstrued.  Owing 
partly  to  the  circumstances  of  her  time,  partly  to 
her  own  generous  and  warm-hearted  but  imprudent 
impulsiveness,  she  failed  to  win  the  affection  of  her 
adopted  country  as  a  whole,  though  she  certainly 
earned  its  respect  and  esteem.  This  was  not  the 
least  bitter  trial  of  her  life,  for  she  was  one  of 
those  natures  who  have  a  craving  for  affection  and 
understanding  sympathy;  and  the  criticism  and 
even  the  hostihty  with  which  she  was  regarded  in 
Germany  were  all  the  more  painful  to  her  in  that 
she  could  not  in  the  least  understand  on  what  they 
were  based. 

Perhaps  she  was  too  deeply  convinced  of  the 
superiority  of  England  and  of  English  institutions, 
and  made  too  little  allowance  for  the  sensitiveness 
of  a  people  who  were  then  slowly  emerging  into 
a  national  in  place  of  a  particularist  consciousness. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  certain  that,  however  she  had 
comported  herself,  she  could  not  have  escaped 
criticism  of  which  she  was  no  more  than  the  osten- 
sible object,  and  the  real  purpose  of  which  is  to  be 
found  in  the  political  cross-currents  of  the  period. 


X  PREFACE 

In  this  memoir  the  attempt  is  made  to  draw  a 
true  picture  of  this  singularly  engaging  and  gener- 
ous personality,  who  played  her  part  in  great 
affairs,  and  who  suffered  all  reversals  of  fortune, 
the  anguish  of  bereavement,  and  the  pain  of  cruel 
disease,  alike  with  unflinching  courage  and  dignity. 

The  materials  have  been  found,  not  only  in  many 
works  of  history,  biography,  memoir  and  reminis- 
cence, both  German  and  English,  some  of  which 
are  little  known,  especially  to  English  readers,  but 
also  in  the  recollection  of  persons  who  were 
honoured  with  the  Empress's  friendship.  The  aim 
of  the  writer  has  been,  while  avoiding  such  indis- 
criminate laudation  as  really  degrades  the  subject 
of  it,  to  draw  a  full-length  portrait  of  one  of  the 
noblest  and  most  attractive  characters  in  the  long 
history  of  the  Royal  Houses  of  Europe. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

FAOK 

Pedigree   showing  the   Family   Connections  of   the 

Emperor  and  Empress   Frederick xv 

CHAP. 

I    Childhood  and  Girlhood 1 

II    Betrothal 23 

III    Opinion  in  Both  Countries 36 

IV    Marriage 58 

V    Early  Married  Life 71 

VI    Birth  of  Prince  William 100 

VII    Advice  from  England 115 

VIII    Death  of  the  King  of  Prussia 133 

IX    First  Relations  with  Bismarck       ....  162 

X    The  War  of  the  Duchies 177 

XI    Home  Life  and  Religion 198 

XII    The  Austrian  War:  Work  in  the  Hospitals  .  210 

XIII    The  Franco-German  War 227 

XIV    Public  and  Private  Activities 245 

XV    The  Crown  Prince's  Regency 263 

XVI    Silver  Wedding:  The  Crown  Prince's  Illness  279 

XVII    The  Hundred  Days'  Reign   .      .      .      .      .      .  299 

XVIII    Early  Widowhood:  Fall  of  Bismarck  .      .      .  315 
XIX    The    Planning    of    Friedrichshof:    Visit    to 

Paris 329 

XX    Life   at   Friedrichshof 340 

XXI    Last  Years 354 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Empress  Frederick  (Photogravure)   .      .      .   Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

The  Prince  of  Wales  and  the  Princess  Royal  .      .      .      .  18 

The  Princess  Royal,  Victoria  Adelaide  Mary  Louisa  .      .  54 

Her  Royal  Highness  Victoria,  Princess  Royal  ....  98 

His  Royal  Highness,  Prince  Frederick  William  of  Prussia  138 

Her    Royal    Highness,    Princess    Frederick    William    of 

Prussia 180 

Her  Royal  Highness,  Princess  Frederick  William  of 
Prussia  and  Infant  Prince  Frederick  William  Victor 
Albert 218 

Frederick  William,  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia,  after  the 

Franco-Prussian  War 258 

The  Late  Empress  Frederick 302 

The  Late  Empress  Frederick 342 


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THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 


CHAPTER  I 

CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD 

Before  the  birth  of  the  Princess  Royal  in  Novem- 
ber 1840,  no  direct  heir  had  been  born  to  a  reign- 
ing British  Sovereign  for  nearly  eighty  years. 
The  Prince  Regent,  afterwards  George  IV,  was 
born  in  1762,  two  years  after  his  father's  accession, 
and  the  death  in  childbirth  of  the  Prince  Regent's 
daughter.  Princess  Charlotte,  when  she  was  only 
twenty,  was  still  vividly  remembered. 

Queen  Victoria  was  now  but  little  older  than 
Princess  Charlotte,  and  the  birth  of  her  first  child 
was  regarded  with  a  certain  anxiety  by  the  nation. 
It  might  prove  to  be  the  only  child,  and  in  that 
event  much  would  hang  on  the  preservation  of  its 
life.  Those  members  of  the  "Old  Royal  Family" 
who  were  next  in  succession  were  not  popular,  and 
the  little  Princess  Royal  may  truly  be  described 
as  having  been  the  child  of  many  prayers. 

It  was  natural  that  Queen  Victoria  should  have 
recourse  to  Prince  Albert's  confidential  adviser. 
Baron  Stockmar,  the  more  so  that  he  was  a  skilled 
physician.  Stockmar  therefore  came  to  London 
early  in  November.  Those  were  not  the  days  of 
trained  nurses,  but  rather  of  the  types  immortal- 
ised by  Dickens,  and  it  is  interesting  to  find  the 


2  THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

shrewd  old  German,  characteristically  in  advance 
of  his  time,  urging  the  Prince  to  be  most  careful 
in  the  choice  of  a  nurse,  "for  a  man's  education 
begins  the  first  day  of  his  life,  and  a  lucky  choice 
I  regard  as  the  greatest  and  finest  gift  we  can 
bestow  on  the  expected  stranger." 

On  November  13  the  Court  arrived  at  Bucking- 
ham Palace,  where  on  the  21st  the  Princess  was 
born.  "For  a  moment  only,"  the  Queen  says, 
"was  the  Prince  disappointed  at  its  being  a  daugh- 
ter and  not  a  son." 

The  character  of  the  monarchy  in  England  has 
changed  so  much,  both  absolutely  and  also  rela- 
tively to  the  people,  that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to 
reahse  the  measure  of  prejudice  and  even  contempt 
which  still  subsisted  before  Queen  Victoria  had 
had  time  to  win  the  full  confidence  of  her  subjects. 
It  is  not  therefore  really  surprising  that  the  little 
Princess  Royal  should  have  been  greeted  on  her 
first  appearance  with  a  shower  of  caricatures,  some 
of  them  not  remarkable  for  their  refinement. 

Still,  a  good  deal  of  the  rough  humour  lavished 
on  the  Princess  was  kindly  in  its  intention,  though 
sometimes  there  was  a  sting  in  the  tail.  For  in- 
stance, Melbourne,  the  Prime  Minister,  was  shown 
as  nurse,  proudly  presenting  the  Princess  Royal 
to  John  Bull:  "I  hope  the  caudle  is  to  your  liking, 
Mr.  Bull.  It  must  be  quite  a  treat,  for  you  have 
not  had  any  for  a  long  time."  John  Bull  replies: 
"Well,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  Mother  Melbourne,  I 


CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD        3 

think  the  caudle  the  best  of  it,  for  I  had  hoped  for 
a  boy." 

Melbourne's  fatherly  devotion  to  the  Queen  was 
indeed  a  piece  of  luck  for  the  caricaturists  of  the 
day.  A  cartoon  entitled  "Old  Servants  in  New 
Characters"  shows  him  dressed  as  a  nurse  with  the 
infant  Princess  in  his  care;  she  is  sitting  in  a  tiny 
carriage,  with  Lord  John  Russell  as  outrider. 

It  was  arranged  that  the  christening  should  take 
place  in  London  on  February  10,  the  anniversary 
of  the  Queen's  marriage,  the  infant  receiving  the 
names  of  Victoria  Adelaide  Mary  Louise.  Even 
the  christening  of  the  Princess  Royal  inspired  a 
long  satirical  poem.     One  verse  ran: 

"This  is  the  Bishop,  so  bold  and  intrepid, 
A-making  the  water  so  nice  and  so  tepid, 
To  christen  the  Baby,  who's  stated,  no  doubt, 
Her  objection  to  taking  it  'cold  without.'  " 

The  sponsors  were  Prince  Albert's  brother,  the 
Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg  and  Gotha  (represented  in 
his  absence  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington) ,  the  King 
of  the  Belgians,  the  Queen  Dowager  (Adelaide), 
the  Duchess  of  Gloucester,  the  Duchess  of  Kent, 
and  the  Duke  of  Sussex.  Lord  Melbourne  re- 
marked of  the  Princess  to  the  Queen  next  day: 
"How  she  looked  about  her,  quite  conscious  that 
the  stir  was  all  about  herself !  This  is  the  time  the 
character  is  formed!"  The  Prime  Minister  would 
have  agreed  with  Stockmar's  view  that  a  man's 


4  THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

education  (and  presumably  also  a  woman's)  begins 
with  the  first  day  of  life. 

Prince  Albert  sent  a  vivid  account  of  the  cere- 
mony to  the  venerable  Dowager  Duchess  of  Gotha: 

"The  christening  went  ojff  very  well.  Your 
little  great-grandchild  behaved  with  great  pro- 
priety, and  like  a  Christian.  She  was  awake,  but 
did  not  cry  at  all,  and  seemed  to  crow  with  im- 
mense satisfaction  at  the  lights  and  brilliant  uni- 
forms, for  she  is  very  intelligent  and  observing. 
The  ceremony  took  place  at  half -past  six  p.  m.,  and 
after  it  there  was  a  dinner,  and  then  we  had  some 
instrumental  music.  The  health  of  the  little  one 
was  drunk  with  great  enthusiasm.  The  little  girl 
bears  the  Saxon  Arms  in  the  middle  of  the  English, 
which  looks  very  pretty." 

The  Princess  Royal,  like  her  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, led  an  ideal  childhood.  All  through  her  later 
life  she  often  referred  to  the  unclouded  happiness 
of  these  early  years,  and  it  comes  out  equally 
clearly  in  the  published  correspondence  of  her  sis- 
ter. Princess  Alice.  In  this  matter  both  Prince 
Albert  and  Queen  Victoria  were  in  advance  of 
their  time,  and  the  Prince,  especially,  perceived, 
what  was  not  then  at  all  generally  believed,  that 
children  could  be  made  happy  without  being 
spoiled. 

Perhaps  the  most  sensible  decision  of  the  parents 
was  that  the  Royal  children  should  come  in  con- 
tact as  little  as  possible  with  the  actual  life  of  the 


CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD        5 

Court.  Not  that  the  tone  of  the  Court  was  bad; 
on  the  contrary,  it  was  singularly  high,  but  the 
Queen  and  Prince  Albert  knew  the  subtle  danger 
of  even  innocent  petting  and  flattery  on  young 
and  impressionable  minds. 

So  it  was  that  the  Royal  children  had  very  little 
to  do  with  the  Queen's  ladies-in-waiting — indeed 
they  were  only  seen  by  them  for  a  few  moments 
after  dinner  at  dessert,  or  when  driving  out  with 
their  parents.  The  Queen  and  the  Prince  en- 
trusted the  care  of  their  sons  and  daughters  exclu- 
sively to  persons  who  possessed  their  whole  con- 
fidence, and  with  whom  they  could  be  in  constant 
direct  communication.  Both  were  kept  regularly 
informed  of  the  minutest  details  of  what  was  being 
done  for  their  children,  and  as  the  princesses  grew 
older  they  had  an  English,  a  French,  and  a  Ger- 
man governess,  who  were,  in  their  turn,  responsible 
to  a  lady  superintendent. 

It  has  been  the  custom  of  late  to  speak  as  if  the 
children  of  Queen  Victoria  had  been  over-educated 
and  over-stimulated.  This  was  at  least  partly  true 
of  their  infancy,  but  if  they  had  been  really  over- 
educated,  they  would  not  have  turned  out  as  well 
as  they  did  later,  nor  would  they  have  all  delighted 
in  looking  back  with  fond  reminiscence  to  their 
earliest  years. 

The  Princess  Royal  was  soon  recognised  by  all 
those  about  her  as  intellectually  the  flower  of  the 
happy  little  flock.     She  was  clever,  self-willed,  and 


6  THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

high-spirited;  learning  everything  that  was  put 
before  her  with  marvellous  intelligence  and  rapidity. 
Her  dearest  friend  and  companion  was  her  sister^ 
the  sweet-natured,  pensive  Princess  Alice,  who  was 
next  in  age,  after  the  Prince  of  Wales,  to  herself- 
The  two  lived  for  some  years  a  life  which  was 
exactly  alike.  They  shared  the  same  lessons,  the 
same  amusements,  the  same  interests;  both  had  a 
strong  love  of  art  and  of  drawing;  both  were,  if 
anything,  over-sensitively  alive  to  the  claims  of 
duty  and  of  patriotism. 

Naturally  the  most  detailed  and  accurate  im- 
pression of  the  Princess  Royal's  childhood  is  to  be 
derived  from  the  correspondence  of  Sarah  Lady 
Lyttelton,  who  was  appointed  Governess  to  the 
Royal  children  in  April  1842. 

This  lady,  who  was  then  approaching  her  fifty- 
fifth  birthday,  was  the  daughter  of  the  second  Earl 
Spencer,  and  sister  of  that  Lord  Althorp  who  was 
a  member  of  Lord  Grey's  Reform  Ministry,  and 
who  played  a  notable  part  in  politics  rather  by  his 
strength  of  character  than  by  any  commanding 
ability.  Lady  Sarah  married  the  third  Lord 
Lyttelton  in  1813.  It  is  interesting  to  recall  that 
her  son,  afterwards  the  fourth  Lord  Lyttelton^ 
married  Mrs.  Gladstone's  sister.  Miss  Glynne. 
Sarah  Lady  Lyttelton  was  widowed  in  1837  after 
a  singularly  happy  married  life,  and  soon  after- 
wards Queen  Victoria  appointed  her  a  lady-in- 
waiting. 


CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD       7 

When,  some  four  years  later,  she  was  given  the 
responsible  post  of  Governess  to  the  Royal  chil- 
dren, she  was  already  very  well  known  to  the 
Queen  and  the  Prince  Consort,  as  well  as  to  their 
closest  adviser.  Lord  Melbourne,  for  instance, 
heartily  approved  the  appointment,  declaring  that 
no  other  person  so  well  qualified  could  have  been 
selected. 

The  picture  of  the  Princess  Royal  which  her 
guardian  draws  in  these  letters  is  one  of  an  ex- 
traordinarily winning  though  precocious  child,  and 
if  it  seems  to  modern  judgment  that  the  precocity 
was  rather  too  much  stimulated,  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  we  are  back  in  the  'forties,  when 
a  scientific  study  of  the  psychology  of  infants  was 
not  dreamed  of.  IMoreover,  it  is  abundantly  evi- 
dent that  the  little  Princess  had  such  a  way  with 
her,  "so  innocent  arch,  so  cunning  simple,"  that 
it  must  have  required  no  ordinary  resolution  to 
avoid  spoiling  her,  while  even  the  most  scientific 
modern  expert  would  probably  have  found  it  very 
hard  to  draw  the  line  between  over-stimulation  and 
proper  encouragement  of  her  remarkable  intelli- 
gence. 

Lady  Lyttelton  had  her  first  glimpse  of  the 
Princess  Royal  in  July  1841.  She  describes  her 
as  a  fine,  fat,  firm,  fair.  Royal-looking  baby,  "too 
absurdly  like  the  Queen."  Her  look  was  grave, 
calm,  and  penetrating,  and  she  surveyed  the  whole 
company  most  composedly.     She  was  shown  at  her 


8  THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

carriage  window  to  the  populace ;  and  Lady  Lyttel- 
ton,  noting  the  universal  grin  in  all  faces,  declares 
that  the  baby  will  soon  have  seen  every  set  of  teeth 
in  the  kingdom ! 

Some  months  later  she  records  that  "the  dear 
Babekin  is  really  going  to  be  quite  beautiful.  Such 
large  smiling  soft  blue  eyes,  and  quite  a  handsome 
nose,  and  the  prettiest  mouth."  The  child  early 
acquired  the  appropriate  pet  name  of  "Pussy," 
while  she  herself,  finding  Lady  Lyttelton's  name 
too  large  a  mouthful,  simplified  it  to  "Laddie.'* 

It  may  be  here  recorded  that  an  absurd  rumour 
had  been  circulated  that  the  Princess  Royal  had 
been  born  blind,  and  it  was  this  and  other  foolish 
gossip  which  first  induced  the  Queen,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  Prince  Albert,  to  issue  an  official  Court 
Circular,  which  has  been  continued  ever  since. 

The  Queen  had  the  baby  constantly  with  her, 
and  thought  incessantly  about  her,  with  the  result 
that  the  child  was  perhaps  rather  over-watched  and 
over-doctored.  She  was  fed  on  asses'  milk,  arrow- 
root, and  chicken  broth,  which  were  measured  out 
so  carefully  that  Lady  Lyitelton  fancied  she  left 
off  hungry.  Lady  Lyttelton,  indeed,  had  some 
experience  of  this  dieting  craze,  for  her  brother, 
Lord  Althorp,  at  one  time,  when  he  had  a  terror 
of  getting  fat,  used  to  weigh  out  his  own  breakfast 
every  morning,  and  when  he  had  consumed  the  tiny 
allowance  used  to  hasten  out  of  the  room  lest  he 
should  be  led  into  temptation  I 


CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD        9 

The  little  Princess  was  over-sensitive  and  affec- 
tionate, and  rather  irritable  in  temper,  and  with 
a  prophetic  eye  Lady  Lyttelton  says  that  "it  looks 
like  a  pretty  mind,  only  very  unfit  for  roughing 
it  through  a  hard  life,  which  hers  may  be." 

After  the  birth  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  Lady 
Lyttelton  gives  us  a  passing,  but  sufficiently  ter- 
rible glimpse  of  the  anxieties  which  Royal  parents 
must  all  suffer,  more  or  less.  She  mentions  that 
threatening  letters  aimed  directly  at  the  children 
were  received,  and  though  they  were  probably 
written  by  mad  people,  nevertheless  no  protection 
in  the  way  of  locks,  guard-rooms,  and  intricate 
passages  was  omitted  for  the  defence  of  the  Royal 
nurseries;  while  the  master  key  was  never  out  of 
Prince  Albert's  own  keeping. 

The  Princess  Royal  spent  her  second  birthday 
at  Walmar  Castle,  and  she  is  described  as  being 
"most  funny  all  day,"  joining  in  the  cheers  and 
asking  to  be  lifted  up  to  look  at  "the  people,"  to 
whom  she  bowed  very  actively  whether  they  could 
see  her  or  not. 

Perhaps  one  reason  why  she  became,  and  re- 
mained, so  fond  of  France  was  that  from  infancy 
she  was  placed  in  tlie  charge  of  a  French  lady, 
Madame  Charlier.  She  was  very  advanced 
through  all  her  childhood,  especially  in  music  and 
painting,  yet  she  remained  quite  natural  and  simple 
in  all  her  ways. 

She  was  only  three  years  old  when  Prince  Albert 


10        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

wrote  to  Stockmar:  "The  children  in  whose  wel- 
fare you  take  so  kindly  an  interest  are  making  most 
favourable  progress.  The  eldest,  'Pussy,'  is  now 
quite  a  little  personage.  She  speaks  English  and 
French  with  great  fluency  and  choice  of  phrase." 
But  to  her  parents  she  generally  talked  German. 

"Our  Pussette"  the  Queen  writes  a  few  weeks 
afterwards,  "learns  a  verse  of  Lamartine  by  heart, 
which  ends  with  'Le  tableau  se  deroule  a  mes  pieds.' 
To  show  how  well  she  understood  this  difficult  line, 
I  must  tell  you  the  following  hon-mot.  When  she 
was  riding  on  her  pony,  and  looking  at  the  cows 
and  sheep,  she  turned  to  Madame  Charlier,  and 
said :  ' Voila  le  tableau  qui  se  deroule  a  mes  pieds  I' 
Is  not  this  extraordinary  for  a  child  of  three  years?" 

It  is  evident  that  the  oral  teaching  of  languages 
had  very  sensibly  preceded  that  of  books,  for  when 
the  Princess  is  four  years  and  three  months  old 
we  hear  that  she  is  getting  on  Yerj  well  with  her 
lessons,  "but  much  is  still  to  be  done  before  she 
can  read." 

In  spite  of  her  accomplishments,  she  was  a  very 
natural  human  child,  and  could  be  naughty  on 
occasion.  Lady  Lyttelton  records  about  this  time 
that  the  Princess,  after  an  hour's  naughtiness, 
said  she  wished  to  speak  to  her;  but  instead  of  the 
expected  penitence,  she  delivered  herself  as  fol- 
lows: "I  am  very  sorry.  Laddie,  but  I  mean  to  be 
just  as  naughty  next  time" — a  threat  which  was 
followed  by  a  long  imprisonment. 


CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD      11 

Perhaps  the  Princess  Royal's  happiest  days 
were  spent  at  Osborne,  where  she  began  going  at 
the  age  of  five.  There  the  Royal  children  had  a 
cottage,  built  on  the  Swiss  model,  to  themselves. 
It  comprised  a  dining-room,  a  kitchen,  a  store- 
room, and  a  museum ;  and  in  it  the  Princesses  were 
encouraged  to  learn  how  to  do  household  work,  and 
to  direct  tlie  management  of  a  small  establishment. 
When  in  their  Swiss  cottage,  each  princess  was 
allowed  to  choose  her  own  occupation  and  to 
enjoy  a  certain  liberty;  their  parents  used  to  be 
invited  there  as  guests  at  meals  which  the  Prin- 
cess Royal  and  Princess  Alice  had  themselves  pre- 
pared. 

Years  later,  when  they  had  both  married  to 
Germany,  there  were  certain  tunes  which  neither 
the  Princess  Royal  nor  Princess  Alice  could  hear 
without  tears  rising  to  their  eyes,  so  powerfully  did 
the  recollection  of  the  happy  birthdaj^s  and  holidays 
they  spent  at  Osborne  remain  with  them.  Not 
long  before  her  death  Princess  Alice  wrote  to  her 
mother:  "What  a  joyous  childhood  we  had,  and 
how  greatly  it  was  enhanced  by  dear  sweet  Papa, 
and  by  all  your  kindness  to  us!" 

Many  happy  days  were  also  spent  by  the  Prin- 
cesses at  Balmoral.  In  the  Highlands  the  re- 
straints of  Court  life  were  entirely  thrown  off,  and 
the  Queen  encouraged  her  daughters  to  come  into 
close  contact  with  the  poorer  classes  of  their  neigh- 
bours, indeed  everything  in  reason  was  done  to 


12        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

arouse  their  sympathies  for  the  needy  and  the  suf- 
fering. 

The  Princess  Royal  showed  even  in  her  early 
childhood  an  astonishing  power  of  vivid  expression. 
For  example,  when  she  was  about  five  and  a  half, 
she  found  mentioned  in  a  history  book  the  name  of 
an  ancient  poet  called  Wace.  Lady  Lyttelton 
thereupon  observed  that  she  had  never  heard  of 
that  poet  till  then,  but  the  Princess  insisted: 
"Oh,  yes,  I  daresay  you  did,  only  you  have  for- 
gotten it.  Reflechissez!  Go  back  to  your  young- 
ness  and  you  will  soon  remember." 

That  the  child  had  a  natural  and  instinctive 
religious  feeling  is  shown  by  another  incident. 
She  had  narrowly  escaped  serious  injury  from 
treading  on  a  large  nail,  and  Lady  Lyttelton  ex- 
plained to  her  that  it  had  pleased  God  to  save  her 
from  great  pain.  Instantly  the  child  said :  "Shall 
we  kneel  down?" 

In  October  1847  the  Princess  Royal  had  an 
accident  which  might  have  been  very  serious. 

The  children  were  riding  with  their  ponies  when 
the  Princess  was  quietly  thrown  after  a  few  yards 
of  cantering.  She  was  not  hurt,  but  the  Prince 
of  Wales's  pony  ran  away  with  him.  Fortunately 
he  was  strapped  into  the  saddle,  and,  after  one  loud 
cry  for  help,  he  showed  no  signs  of  fear,  but 
cleverly  kept  as  tight  hold  of  the  reins  as  he  could 
pull.  The  Princess  Royal  was  not  at  all  fright- 
ened herself  until  she  saw  her  brother's  danger. 


CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD      13 

and  then  she  screamed  out:  "Oh,  can't  they  stop 
him?  Dear  Bertie!"  and  burst  into  tears.  For- 
tunately all  ended  well,  and  the  children  went  on 
riding  as  fearlessly  as  ever. 

In  October  1848  the  Royal  children,  crossing  in 
the  yacht  Fairy  from  Osborne  on  their  way  to 
Windsor,  witnessed  a  terrible  accident — the  sink- 
ing of  a  boatload  of  people  in  a  sudden  squall.  It 
made  a  deep  impression  on  aU  the  children,  and 
the  Princess  Royal  kept  thinking  of  it  all  that 
night. 

It  is  about  this  time  that  Lady  Lyttelton  ob- 
serves: "The  Princess  Royal  might  pass,  if  not 
seen  but  only  overheard,  for  a  young  lady  of  seven- 
teen in  whichever  of  her  three  languages  she  chose 
to  entertain  the  company." 

Nearly  a  year  afterwards,  Lady  Lyttelton  notes 
that  "dear  Princessey"  had  been  now  perfectly 
good  ever  since  they  came  to  Osborne,  and  she 
says  that  she  continues  to  reflect  and  observe  and 
reason  like  a  very  superior  person,  and  is  as  affec- 
tionate as  ever. 

Again,  in  April  1849,  she  notes  every  moment 
more  and  more  "the  blessed  improvement  of  the 
Princess  Royal."  "She  is  becoming  capable  of 
self-control  and  principle  and  patience,  and  her 
wonderful  powers  of  head  and  heart  continue. 
She  may  turn  out  a  most  distinguished  character." 
And  a  few  months  later  she  notes  that  "the  Prin- 
cess Royal  is  so  enormously  improved  in  manner, 


14        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

in  temper,  and  conduct — altogether  as  really  to 
give  a  bright  promise  of  all  good.  Her  talent  and 
brilliancy  have  naturally  lost  no  ground:  she  may 
turn  out  something  remarkable."  All  the  children 
showed  real  kindness  to  the  poor,  visiting  them  and 
beginning  to  understand  what  poverty  is. 

The  Princess  accompanied  her  parents  and  the 
Prince  of  Wales  on  a  visit  to  Ireland  in  August 
1849,  and  afterwards  went  to  Cherbourg,  that 
being  her  first  visit  to  France.  It  was  during  that 
stay  at  Cherbourg  that  the  cure  of  a  neighbouring 
village  gave  the  young  English  Princess  a  charm- 
ing sketch  done  by  one  of  his  parishioners,  a  then 
unknown  artist  named  Jean  Francois  Millet. 

The  Princess  Royal  and  the  Prince  of  Wales 
made  their  first  official  appearance  in  London  on 
October  30,  1849,  when  they  represented  their 
mother,  who  was  suiBTering  from  chicken-pox,  at 
the  opening  of  the  new  Coal  Exchange.  The  scene 
has  been  often  described,  notably  by  Miss  Alcott, 
the  author  of  Little  Women,  who  was  however, 
naturally  more  interested  in  the  Prince  than  in  his 
sister. 

Much  to  their  delight,  the  children  went  from 
Westminster  to  the  City  in  the  State  barge  rowed 
by  twenty-six  watermen,  and  all  London  turned 
out  to  greet  them.  They  were  very  wisely  not 
allowed  to  attend  the  big  public  luncheon,  but  were 
given  their  lunch  in  a  private  room.  Lady  Lyttel- 
ton  mentions  that  the  gentleman  who  made  the 


CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD      15 

arrangements  was  so  overcome  by  his  loyal  feelings 
at  the  sight  of  the  children  that  he  melted  into  tears 
and  had  to  retire! 

In  the  summer  before  the  Princess's  tenth  birth- 
day, Lady  Lyttelton  records:  "Princess  Royal 
standing  by  me  to-day,  as  I  was  trying  a  few  chords 
on  the  pianoforte,  was  pleased  and  pensive  like  her 
old  self.  'I  like  chords,  one  can  read  them.  They 
make  one  sometimes  gay,  sometimes  sad.  It  used 
to  be  too  much  for  me  to  like  formerly.*  " 

The  year  1851  was  memorable  in  the  Princess 
Royal's  life,  for  it  was  then  that  she  first  met  her 
future  husband. 

It  has  been  said  that  Prince  Frederick  William 
of  Prussia,  who  was  twenty  at  the  time,  became 
attracted  to  his  future  wife  during  this  first  visit 
of  his  to  the  Enghsh  Court,  when  he  accompanied 
his  parents  and  his  only  sister  to  see  the  Great  Ex- 
hibition. But  that  is  surely  absurd,  for  the  Prin- 
cess, charming  and  clever  as  she  was,  was  then  only 
a  child. 

Still  the  English  Court  was  probably  never  seen 
to  greater  advantage  than  during  that  year  of 
miracles,  and  it  is  clear  that  the  young  Prussian 
Prince  saw  for  the  first  time  a  Royal  family  lead- 
ing a  happy,  natural  life,  full  of  affection  and 
kindness.  Queen  Victoria's  children  were  healthy, 
well-mannered,  and  devoted  to  their  parents,  and 
the  leader  and  head  of  the  little  band  was  the  Prin- 
cess Royal,  full  of  eager  interest  in  everything  she 


16        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

was  allowed  to  see  and  know,  blessed  with  high 
spirits  and  a  keen  sense  of  humour  even  then  al- 
ready well  developed.  She  was  adored  by  her 
father,  and  encouraged  in  every  way  to  "produce 
herself,"  to  use  an  expressive  French  phrase. 

Prince  Frederick  William  could  not  but  note 
the  contrast  between  the  young  people  whose 
friendship  he  was  making  at  Windsor,  and  the  shy, 
etiquette-ridden  Royal  children  of  the  minor  Ger- 
man courts.  Nor  could  he  help  contrasting  this 
delightful  domestic  scene  with  what  he  knew  at 
home.  At  Berlin  he  was  in  constant  contact  with 
a  Royal  family  profoundly  disunited  and  un- 
happy. Only  three  years  before  his  first  visit  to 
England  he  had  stood  at  the  palace  window  and 
seen  the  first  shot  fired  in  the  Revolution  of  1848. 

Although  the  Pi-ince  had  a  tenderly-loved  sister, 
he  had  spent  a  lonely,  austere  youth,  for  his  par- 
ents, though  outwardly  on  good  terms,  were  in  no 
sense  united  as  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince  Albert 
were  united — indeed,  it  was  an  open  secret  that  the 
Prince  of  Prussia  had  only  one  love  in  his  life, 
Elise  Radziwill. 

Prince  Frederick  William's  sister  was  only  a 
very  little  older  than  the  Princess  Royal.  The  two 
princesses  formed  on  this  visit  a  friendship  destined 
never  to  be  broken,  and  henceforth  the  Royal  chil- 
dren called  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Prussia 
"Uncle  Prussia"  and  "Aunt  Prussia." 

The  Great  Exhibition  itself  undoubtedly  helped 


CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD      17 

to  strengthen  Prince  Frederick  William's  attrac- 
tion to  England.  The  palace  of  glass  in  Hyde 
Park  absorbed  the  minds  and  thoughts  of  the  whole 
Royal  family,  if  only  because  all  those  who  were 
old  enough  to  understand  anything  of  public  affairs 
were  aware  that  the  success  or  failure  of  the  enter- 
prise would  seriously  affect  the  position  of  Prince 
Albert  in  England. 

The  feeling  among  the  Royal  family  is  shown 
by  a  passage  in  a  letter  of  Queen  Victoria  to  Lady 
Lyttelton.  Writing  on  May  1,  the  opening  day 
of  the  Exhibition,  Her  Majesty  said: 

"The  proudest  and  happiest  day  of — as  you 
truly  call  it — ^my  happy  life.  To  see  this  great 
conception  of  my  beloved  husband's  mind — to  see 
this  great  thought  and  work,  crowned  with  trium- 
phant success  in  spite  of  difficulties  and  opposition 
of  every  imaginable  kind,  and  of  every  effort  to 
which  jealousy  and  calumny  could  resort  to  cause 
its  failure,  has  been  an  immense  happiness  to  us 
both." 

Prince  Frederick  William,  thoughtful  beyond 
his  years,  and  already  under  the  spell  of  Prince 
Albert's  kindly  and  affectionate  interest,  began 
to  regard  England  as  the  model  State,  and  took 
most  significant  pains  to  make  himself  better  ac- 
quainted with  her  national  life  and  polity.  Even 
on  this  comparatively  short  visit  he  found  time  to 
make  an  excursion  to  the  industrial  North. 

On  his  return  to  Bonn  University  his  admiration 


18        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

for  England  by  no  means  waned,  and  his  English 
tutor,  Mr.  Pern',  gives  us  an  interesting  glimpse 
of  the  thoroughness  with  which  he  set  to  work  to 
increase  his  knowledge: 

"At  the  request  of  the  Prince,  I  visited  him 
three  times  a  week,  and  had  the  honour  of  suj)erin- 
tending  his  studies  in  English  history  and  litera- 
ture, in  both  of  which  he  took  special  interest. 
His  love  for  England  and  his  great  veneration  of 
the  Queen  were  most  remarkable,  and  our  inter- 
course became  very  agreeable  and  confidential. 
He  manifested  the  keenest  interest  for  all  that  I 
was  able  to  tell  him  of  England's  political  and 
social  life,  and  when  our  more  serious  studies  were 
over,  we  amused  ourselves  by  writing  imaginary 
letters  to  Ministers  and  leading  members  of  Eng- 
lish society." 

It  was  in  truth  with  England  that  Prince  Fred- 
erick Wilham  fell  in  love  on  this  memorable  visit, 
not  with  the  little  Princess  Royal,  though  he  was 
undoubtedly  attracted,  as  all  the  people  round  her 
were,  by  her  winning  charm  and  quick  intelligence. 

The  idea  of  a  marriage  between  the  two  had, 
however,  occurred  to  other  people,  as  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  in  the  following  year  the  Princess  of 
Prussia  desired  to  visit  England  with  a  view  to 
suggesting  it.  But  the  Prince's  uncle.  King  Fred- 
erick William  IV,  influenced  by  his  pro-Russian 
consort,  did  not  look  on  the  proposal  with  favour, 
and  it  remained  in  abeyance,  partly  on  account  of 


w 


^ 

V 


"^fc. 


^f/ 


THE  PRINCE  OF   WALES  AND  THE 
PRINCESS  ROYAL 

PAINTED  BY  COMMAND  OF  THE  QUEEN 


CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD      19 

the  Princess  Royal's  youth,  partly  owing  to  the 
outbreak  of  the  Crimean  War. 

The  Crimean  War  made  an  immense  impression 
on  the  Princess  Royal.  For  months  the  Queen, 
the  Prince,  and  the  elder  Royal  children  thought 
and  talked  of  nothing  else.  The  children  con- 
tributed drawings  to  be  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the 
war  funds,  and  we  know  that  the  Princess's  emo- 
tions were  deeply  stirred  by  the  thought  of  the 
sufferings  of  the  wounded  and  by  the  work  of 
Florence  Nightingale,  which  was  followed  with 
intense  interest  in  the  Royal  circle.  The  Princess 
in  fact  was  able  at  a  most  impressionable  age  to 
realise  something  of  the  horrors  of  war,  and  this 
was  destined,  as  we  shall  see,  to  bear  rich  fruit. 

The  war  also  led  directly  to  the  Princess's  first 
real  sight  of  France.  In  August,  1855,  the  Prin- 
cess Royal  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  accompanied 
their  parents  on  a  State  visit  to  the  Emperor  Na- 
poleon III  and  the  Empress  Eugenie. 

Of  this  visit  a  story  was  told  at  the  time  which 
greatly  delighted  all  the  Royal  families  of  the  Con- 
tinent. Much  as  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince  Al- 
bert were  respected  for  their  solid  virtues,  their 
artistic  taste  in  matters  of  dress  was  considered  to 
be  not  always  infallible.  It  was  feared  at  the 
French  Court  that  the  Princess  Royal  would  be 
dressed,  not  exactly  unbecomingly,  but  in  a  style 
which  would  by  no  means  harmonise  with  Parisian 
taste  and  Parisian   surroundings.     The  question 


20        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

was  how  to  beguile  her  parents  into  dressing  the 
child  in  a  suitable  manner. 

In  this  difficulty  someone  suggested  a  really  bril- 
liant stratagem.  The  height  and  other  measure- 
ments of  the  Princess  Royal  were  obtained,  and  a 
doll  of  exactly  corresponding  size  was  procured, 
provided  with  a  large  and  exquisitely  finished  ward- 
robe, and  despatched  to  Buckingham  Palace  as  an 
Imperial  gift  to  the  Princess.  The  expected  then 
happened.  Queen  Victoria  transferred  most  of 
±he  doll's  wardrobe  to  her  daughter,  with  the  result 
that  the  Princess  appeared  at  her  best  and  every- 
one was  pleased. 

The  children  stayed  at  the  delightful  country 
palace  of  Saint  Cloud,  whence  they  drove  in  every 
day  to  see  the  sights  of  Paris.  They  were  not,  of 
course,  present  at  evening  entertainments,  but  an 
exception  was  made  on  the  occasion  of  the  ^reat 
ball  held  in  the  Galeries  des  Glaces  at  Versailles, 
when  they  supped  with  the  Emperor  and  Empress. 
They  both  became  sincerely  attached  to  the  Em- 
peror, who  was  himself  very  fond  of  children.  In- 
deed, his  young  guests  enjoyed  themselves  so  much 
that,  according  to  an  oft-quoted  story,  the  Prince 
of  Wales  asked  that  his  sister  and  himself  might 
stay  on  after  their  parents  had  gone  home,  "for 
there  are  six  more  of  us  at  home  and  they  don't 
want  us!'* 

As  to  their  conduct,  Prince  Albert  wrote  to  the 
Duchess  of  Kent:    "I  am  bound  to  praise  the  chil- 


CHILDHOOD  AND  GIRLHOOD      21 

dren  greatly.  They  behaved  extremely  well,  and 
pleased  everybody.  The  task  was  no  easy  one  for 
them,  but  they  discharged  it  without  embarrass- 
ment and  with  natural  simplicity." 

This  visit  laid  the  foundation  of  that  strong 
affection  and  admiration  for  France  and  the 
French  which  thenceforth  characterised  the  Prin- 
cess Royal.  It  was  on  this  visit,  too,  that  she  con- 
ceived her  enthusiastic  adoration  of  the  Empress 
Eugenie.  Her  character  was  now  beginning  to  be 
formed,  and  it  is  the  key  to  the  tragedy  of  her  life, 
for  a  cruel  fate  so  ordered  her  future  that,  while 
she  was  made  to  pay  the  full  penalty  for  her  fail- 
ings, her  many  lovable  and  generous  qualities 
seemed  often  to  find  none  but  the  most  grudging 
recognition. 

During  the  whole  of  her  life,  the  Princess  Royal 
had  a  peculiarity  which  only  belongs  to  the  gener- 
ous-hearted and  impulsive.  She  was  apt  to  be 
violently  attracted,  sometimes  for  very  little  reason, 
to  those  she  met,  and  then  she  would  be  proportion- 
ately cast  down  if  these  new  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances did  not  turn  out  on  fuller  knowledge  all  that 
she  had  expected  them  to  be.  Those  who  knew 
her  well  are  agreed  in  saying  that  she  was  not  a 
good  judge  of  character.  She  was  apt  to  see  in 
human  beings  what  she  expected  to  see,  not  what 
was  there.  She  not  only  liked  some  people  at  first 
sight,  but  she  had  an  equally  instinctive  dislike  of 
others,  and  this  was  an  even  greater  misfortune, 


22        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

for  sometimes  the  prejudices  she  thus  formed  were 
hard  to  eradicate.  In  this  she  was  quite  unlike 
Queen  Victoria,  who,  having  once  formed  a  wrong 
impression,  was  capable  of  altering  it  entirely  if 
she  was  given  good  reason  to  change  her  mind. 

As  she  grew  up  to  womanhood,  the  Princess 
Royal  was  very  wisely  allowed  to  make  the  ac- 
quaintance of  some  of  the  brilliant  men  and  women 
of  the  day  who  were  admitted  to  her  parents* 
friendship.  One  of  these  was  the  second  Lord 
Granville,  the  "Pussy"  Granville  who  was  after- 
wards Foreign  Minister  in  Mr.  Gladstone's 
Cabinets,  and  we  may  conclude  this  chapter  with 
a  quotation  which  shows  how  he  could  count  on 
the  young  Princess's  appreciation  of  a  funny  story. 

Lord  Granville,  who  went  to  St.  Petersburg  as 
the  head  of  the  special  British  Mission  at  the  cor- 
onation of  the  Tsar  Alexander,  wrote  a  long  letter 
to  Queen  Victoria,  in  which  he  requested  the  Queen 
to  convey  his  respectful  remembrances  to  the  Prin- 
cess Royal;  and  he  went  on  to  advise  the  Princess, 
when  residing  abroad,  not  to  engage  a  Russian 
maid:  'Lady  Wodehouse  found  hers  eating  the 
contents  of  a  pot  on  her  dressing-table,  which  hap- 
pened to  be  castor-oil  pomatum  for  the  hair  I'* 


CHAPTER  II 

BETKOTHAL 

Even  in  the  days  of  her  extreme  youth.  Queen 
Victoria,  owing  to  the  fact  that  she  was  the  reign- 
ing Sovereign,  had  to  know  much  that  is  generally 
concealed  from  the  young  concerning  the  private 
lives  and  careers  of  their  relatives.  This  is  made 
abundantly  clear  in  the  extracts  from  her  Majesty's 
private  diary  which  have  already  been  published. 

In  these  intimate  records,  written  by  the  girl 
Queen  herself,  we  see  that  Lord  Melbourne  early 
decided  never  to  treat  his  Royal  mistress  as  a 
child.  When  she  asked  him  a  question  he  evidently 
answered  her  truthfully;  and  she  must  have  asked 
him  many  questions  concerning  that  group  of 
princes  and  princesses  who,  even  then,  were  already 
known  as  the  "Old  Royal  Family."  They  were 
Queen  Victoria's  own  aunts  and  uncles;  and  over 
those  who  were  still  living  when  she  came  to  the 
throne  she  possessed,  as  Sovereign,  very  peculiar 
and  extended  powers.  It  was  inevitable  that  they 
should  play  a  considerable  part,  if  not  in  her  life, 
certainly  in  her  imagination;  and  yet  we  hardly 
ever  find  them  mentioned  in  the  work  she  directly 
supervised  and  inspired' — ^the  life  of  the  Prince 
Consort     Her  fear,  her  contempt,  her  horror,  of 

S3 


24        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  way  they  had  conducted  their  lives,  her  dread 
lest  even  their  innocent  follies,  and  their  sad  trage- 
dies of  the  heart,  should  be  repeated  in  the  lives  of 
her  own  sons  and  daughters,  were  perhaps  only 
revealed  to  trusted  friends  in  her  old  age. 

It  may  even  be  doubted  if  Queen  Victoria  ever 
communicated  to  Prince  Albert  certain  of  the  facts 
which  had  necessarily  to  be  made  known  to  her. 
Whether  she  did  so  or  not,  the  course  she  very 
early  set  herself  to  pursue — a  course,  be  it  remem- 
bered, in  which  she  persisted  at  a  time  when  she 
seemed  to  lack  courage  and  energy  to  go  on  even 
with  life  itself,  that  is  during  the  years  that  im- 
mediately succeeded  the  Prince  Consort's  death — 
proved  how  determined  she  was  to  secure  that  the 
lives  of  her  children  should  be  entirely  different 
from  those  of  their  great-uncles  and  great-aunts. 

That  her  daughters,  and  later  her  grand-daugh- 
ters, should  marry  early,  and  make  marriages  of 
inclination;  that  her  sons'  wives  should  be  chosen 
among  princesses  young,  charming,  sympathetic, 
and  personally  attractive  to  each  prince  concerned 
— this  was  one  of  Queen  Victoria's  chief  and  most 
anxious  preoccupations.  She  may  have  tried  to 
guide  inclination,  she  undoubtedly  tried  to  arrange 
suitable  alliances,  but  in  no  single  case  did  she  ever 
seriously  oppose  a  marriage  based  on  strong  at- 
traction. 

In  that  matter  Queen  Victoria  was  a  typical 
Englishwoman.     To  her  mind,  a  union  between  a 


BETROTHAL  25 

young  man  and  a  young  woman  based  on  any  other 
foundation  save  strong  mutual  love  and  confidence, 
was  vile;  and  all  through  her  life  she  wished 
ardently  to  ensure  that  those  marital  blessings 
which  fall  comparatively  often  on  ordinary  people, 
but  comparatively  seldom  on  members  of  the  Royal 
caste,  should  be  the  lot  of  her  immediate  descend- 
ants. 

It  was  natural  that  the  Queen,  with  that  eager 
enthusiasm  which  was  so  much  a  part  of  her  char- 
acter, especially  in  this  still  radiantly  happy  period 
of  her  life,  should  have  welcomed  the  thought  of 
a  marriage  between  her  eldest  daughter  and  the 
future  King  of  Prussia.  She  had  formed  the  most 
favourable  opinion  of  Prince  Frederick  William 
during  his  brief  sojourn  in  England  in  1851.  He 
was  a  man  of  high  and  honourable  character  at  a 
time  when  such  virtues  were  rare  among  the  mar- 
riageable princes  of  reigning  families,  and  his  par- 
ents were  regarded  by  the  Queen  and  Prince  Al- 
bert as  among  their  dearest  and  most  intimate 
friends. 

The  Prince  of  Prussia  had  spent  some  time  in 
England  after  the  Berlin  revolution  of  1848,  and 
on  parting  from  Madame  Bunsen,  the  wife  of  the 
Prussian  Minister,  he  had  exclaimed:  "In  no 
other  State  or  country  could  I  have  passed  so  well 
the  period  of  distress  and  anxiety  through  which 
I  have  gone."  During  his  stay  he  had  become  in- 
timate with  the  Queen  and  Prince  Albert — indeed. 


26        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  Queen,  as  was  her  way  when  she  trusted  and! 
admired,  had  grown  to  be  warmly  attached  to  him. 
She  regarded  him  as  noble-minded,  honest,  and 
cruelly  wronged;  and,  what  naturally  endeared 
him  to  her  still  more,  he  showed  great  confidence  in 
Prince  Albert,  apparently  always  accepting  the 
advice  constantly  tendered  him  by  the  Prince. 

All  through  his  life  Prince  Albert  had  seen  a 
vision  of  a  Germany  united  under  the  leadership  of 
Prussia,  and  it  was  delightful  to  him  to  learn  that 
it  was  now  open  to  him  to  enter  into  a  close  rela- 
tionship with  one  whom  he  naturally  believed 
destined  to  play  a  supreme  part  in  the  regeneration 
of  his  beloved  fatherland.  It  is  not  generally 
known  that  Prince  Albert  had  written  a  pamphlet 
entitled  "The  German  Question  Explained,"  in 
which  he  propounded  a  scheme  for  a  federated 
German  Empire  with  an  Emperor  at  the  head. 
This  pamphlet  must  have  been  either  privately 
printed  or  withdrawn  from  circulation,  for  not  even 
Sir  Theodore  Martin,  when  writing  the  Prince's 
life,  could  procure  a  copy. 

This  suggested  marriage  of  the  Princess  Royal 
opened  out  to  her  father  the  fair  prospect  of  being 
able  to  bring  about  by  his  counsel  and  assistance 
the  reahsation  of  his  disinterested  ambitions  for  the 
future  welfare  of  Germany.  The  then  King  of 
Prussia  was  already  sick  unto  death;  the  Prince  of 
Prussia  had  now  passed  middle  age;  everything 
pointed  to  the  probability  that  within  a  reasonable 


BETROTHAL  2T 

time  Prince  Frederick  William  would  become  ruler 
of  Prussia  and,  incidentally,  overlord  of  the  Ger- 
man peoples. 

There  is  good  authority  for  the  truth  of  the  now 
famous  story  of  "La  Belle  Alliance." 

In  1852  the  Princess  of  Prussia  came  to  Eng- 
land on  a  short  visit  to  her  aunt,  Queen  Adelaide. 
The  then  Prussian  Envoy,  Baron  von  Bunsen, 
while  waiting  to  be  received  by  the  Princess,  turned 
over  in  her  sitting-room  some  engravings  which  had 
been  sent  by  a  print-seller;  among  them  was  that 
of  a  painting  of  the  farm-house  at  Waterloo  named 
by  the  Belgians,  "La  Belle  Alliance."  In  the  same 
room  was  a  portrait  of  the  Princess  Royal  and  one 
of  Prince  Frederick  William.  The  Baron  placed 
the  two  portraits  side  by  side  over  the  engraving, 
and  when  the  Princess  entered  the  room,  he  silently 
pointed  out  to  her  what  he  had  done,  and  she  saw 
the  two  young  faces  above  the  words  "La  Belle 
Alliance."  "A  rapid  glance  was  exchanged,  but 
not  a  word  was  spoken,"  wrote  Baron  von  Bunsen's 
son  many  years  after. 

As  for  the  young  Prince  himself,  when  the  ques- 
tion of  his  marriage  had  to  be  discussed,  it  was 
natural  that  his  first  thought,  as  also,  it  is  clear, 
that  of  his  mother,  turned  to  England — to  that 
affectionately  united  Royal  family  who  were  the 
envied  model  of  all  European  Courts.  The  feel- 
ing of  that  day  is  indicated  by  a  curious  caricature, 
which  was  largely  reproduced  on  the  Continent. 


28        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

It  shows  a  huge  pair  of  scales.  In  one  scale,  high 
in  the  air,  stand  huddled  together  the  then  reign- 
ing sovereigns  of  Europe;  in  the  other,  touching 
the  ground,  proudly  alone,  stands  the  slight  figure 
of  Queen  Victoria.  Under  the  cartoon  runs  the 
significant  words,  "Light  Sovereigns." 

England  alone  among  the  nations  had  had  no 
trouble  worth  speaking  of  in  '48,  and  among  the 
Princesses  and  Queens  of  her  day  it  was  believed 
that  Queen  Victoria  alone  possessed  the  faithful 
love  of  her  husband. 

The  greatest  obstacle  to  the  marriage,  though 
neither  Queen  Victoria  nor  Prince  Albert  sus- 
pected it,  was  the  King  of  Prussia  himself.  It  is 
plain  that  at  no  time  did  he  favour  the  suggestion, 
and  that  at  last  he  yielded  was  in  response  to  a 
strong  appeal  made  to  him  in  person  by  the  young 
Prince.  But,  even  so,  the  King  desired  the  mat- 
ter to  be  kept  secret  as  long  as  possible.  He  did 
not  even  tell  his  Queen,  and  his  own  immediate 
circle  and  Household  only  heard  of  the  betrothal 
when  it  was  being  widely  rumoured  in  the  German 
newspapers. 

General  von  Gerlach  came  to  the  King  one  day 
with  a  sheet  of  the  Cologne  Gazette  and  indignantly 
complained  of  the  "absurd  reports  that  were  being 
spread  about."  It  is  said  that  the  young  Prince 
was  going  on  to  England  from  Ostend  for  the 
purpose  of  proposing  for  the  hand  of  an  English 
Princess.     The  King  laughed  aloud,  and  observed: 


BETROTHAL  29 

*'Well,  yes,  and  it  is  really  the  ease,"  to  the  amaze- 
ment and  consternation  of  von  Gerlach. 

While  the  matter  was  being  thus  discussed  at 
Berlin,  the  Princess  Royal  was  kept  in  absolute 
ignorance.  But  the  Crimean  War  and  the  subse- 
quent visit  to  France  had  quickened  her  sensibili- 
ties, turned  her  from  a  child  into  a  woman,  and 
made  her  in  a  measure  ready  for  the  event  which 
was  about  to  occur.  It  should,  however,  be  plainly 
said — the  more  so  because  later  historians  have 
blamed  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince  Albert  in  the 
matter — that  neither  of  her  parents  was  willing 
even  to  consider  the  idea  of  any  immediate  be- 
trothal. On  the  contrary,  they  wished  that  the  two 
young  people  should  meet  in  an  easy  friendly 
fashion,  and  thus  have  a  real  opportunity  of  becom- 
ing well  acquainted  the  one  with  the  other. 

Prince  Frederick  William  of  Prussia  arrived  at 
Balmoral  on  September  14,  1855.  He  allowed 
some  days  to  elapse,  and  then,  on  the  morning  of 
the  20th,  he  sought  out  Queen  Victoria  and  laid 
before  her  and  Prince  Albert  his  proposal  of  mar- 
riage. That  proposal  the  parents  of  the  Princess 
Royal  accepted  in  principle,  but  they  requested 
him  to  say  nothing  to  their  daughter  till  after  she 
had  been  confirmed.  It  was  their  wish  that,  for 
some  months  at  any  rate,  the  young  Princess  should 
continue  the  simple  yet  full  life  of  unconstrained 
girlhood.  It  was  therefore  suggested  that  the 
Prince  should  return  in  the  following  spring.     The 


80        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Queen  also  stipulated  that  the  marriage  should  not 
take  place  till  after  the  Princess  Royal's  seven- 
teenth birthday. 

After  this  interview  with  Prince  Frederick  Wil- 
liam, Prince  Albert  wrote  to  Stockmar: 

"I  have  been  much  pleased  with  him.  His 
prominent  qualities  are  great  thought,  straight- 
forwardness, frankness,  and  honesty.  He  appears 
to  be  free  from  prejudices,  and  pre-eminently  well- 
intentioned;  he  speaks  of  himself  as  personally 
jgreatly  attracted  by  Vicky.  That  she  will  have  no 
objection  to  make  I  regard  as  probable." 

Prince  Albert  wrote  the  following  day  to  Lord 
Clarendon,  who  was  then  Foreign  Minister,  in- 
forming him  that  he  might  communicate  the  news 
Xo  the  Prime  Minister,  Lord  Palmer ston,  and  to 
no  one  else.  "Pam"  was  pleased  to  approve,  de- 
claring that  the  marriage  would  be  in  the  interest, 
not  only  of  the  two  countries,  but  of  Europe  in 
general. 

Queen  Victoria  did  not  fail  to  communicate  the 
interesting  secret  to  her  beloved  uncle.  King  Leo- 
pold, observing  that  her  wishes  on  the  subject  of 
the  future  marriage  of  her  daughter  had  been  re- 
alised in  the  most  gratifying  and  satisfactory  man- 
ner. Indeed,  she  spoke  of  the  joy  with  which  she 
and  Prince  Albert  for  their  part  had  accepted  the 
suitor,  while  she  reiterated  that  "the  child  herself 
is  to  know  nothing  till  after  her  confirmation,  which 
is  to  take  place  next  winter." 


BETROTHAL  31 

The  days  went  on,  and  a  sincere  effort  was  made 
to  keep  what  had  taken  place  from  the  knowledge 
of  the  young  Princess.  Letters  of  warm  congratu- 
lation arrived  from  Coblentz,  as  well  as  a  very 
cordial  message  from  the  King  of  Prussia.  Prince 
Frederick  William's  relations  were  quite  at  one  with 
the  Queen  and  Prince  Albert  as  to  the  propriety  of 
postponing  the  betrothal  till  after  the  Princess 
Royal's  confirmation. 

But  the  plan  so  carefully  made  was  not  destined 
to  be  carried  out.  The  Prince  was  very  much  in 
love,  and,  as  the  Emperor  of  the  French  truly  ob- 
served in  a  letter  to  Prince  Albert:  "On  devine  ceux 
qui  aiment."  It  was  impossible  to  keep  such  a 
secret,  and  one  which  so  closely  concerned  herself, 
from  a  girl  as  clever  and  mentally  alive  as  the 
Princess  Royal.  What  happened  is  best  told  in 
Queen  Victoria's  entry  in  her  diary  on  Septem- 
ber 29 : 

"Our  dear  Victoria  was  this  day  engaged  to 
Prince  Frederick  William  of  Prussia,  who  had  been 
on  a  visit  to  us  since  the  14th.  He  had  already 
spoken  to  us,  on  the  20th,  of  his  wishes ;  but  we  were 
uncertain,  on  account  of  her  extreme  youth,  whether 
he  should  speak  to  her  himself,  or  wait  till  he  came 
back  again.  However,  we  felt  it  was  better  he 
should  do  so,  and  during  our  ride  up  Craig-na-Ban 
this  afternoon,  he  picked  a  piece  of  white  heather 
(the  emblem  of  'good  luck,')  which  he  gave  to  her; 
and  this  enabled  him  to  make  an  allusion  to  his 


82        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

hopes  and  wishes  as  they  rode  down  Glen  Girnoch, 
which  led  to  this  happy  conclusion." 

A  few  days  later  her  father  wrote  to  Stockmar : 
"She  manifested  towards  Fritz  and  ourselves  the 
most  childlike  simplicity  and  candour.  The  young 
people  are  ardently  in  love  with  one  another,  and 
the  purity,  innocence,  and  unselfishness  of  the 
young  man  have  been  on  his  part  touching."  To 
Mr.  Perry,  his  English  tutor  at  Bonn,  the  Prince 
declared  that  his  engagement  was  not  politics,  nor 
ambition,  "It  was  my  heart." 

At  the  time  of  her  engagement  the  Princess 
Royal  was  not  yet  fifteen,  and  it  was  arranged  that 
the  marriage  should  take  place  in  two  years  and 
three  months. 

In  one  respect  the  Princess  was  singularly  for- 
tunate. In  the  majority  of  Royal  marriages,  the 
bride  has  not  only  to  make  her  home  in  a  country 
where  everything  will  be  foreign  to  her,  but  she  is 
sometimes  even  ignorant  of  the  language,  manners, 
and  customs  which  she  will  have  henceforth  to  adopt 
as  her  own. 

The  Princess  Royal,  however,  had  to  undergo 
no  such  sudden  initiation.  To  her  Germany  was 
in  truth  a  second  fatherland,  if  only  as  the  birth- 
place of  her  beloved  father.  She  had  been  as 
familiar  with  the  German  as  with  the  English 
language  from  her  birth,  constantly  writing  long 
letters  to  German  relations  and  friends,  and  keep- 
ing up — ^to  give  but  one  instance — a  close  cor- 


BETROTHAL  83 

respondence  with  ber  parents'  trusted  friend, 
Baron  Stockmar,  who  had  for  her  the  greatest  af- 
fection and  admiration. 

In  a  letter  quoted  in  his  memoirs  Stockmar  says : 
"From  her  youth  upwards  I  have  been  fond  of  her, 
have  always  expected  great  things  of  her,  and  taken 
all  pains  to  be  of  service  to  her.  I  think  her  to  be 
exceptionally  gifted  in  some  things,  even  to  the 
point  of  genius." 

This  familiarity  with  the  German  language  was 
very  well  as  a  foundation,  but  Prince  Albert  con- 
sidered that  there  was  much  to  build  on  it.  The 
whole  of  the  Princess's  education  was  now  arranged 
solely  with  a  view  to  the  life  she  was  to  lead  as  wife 
of  the  Prussian  heir-presumptive.  In  addition  to 
giving  her,  for  an  hour  every  day,  special  instruc- 
tion in  German  political  and  legal  institutions  and 
sociology,  Prince  Albert  made  her  henceforth  his 
intellectual  companion,  preparing  her  as  if  she  was 
destined  to  be  a  reigning  sovereign  rather  than  a 
queen  consort.  Not  only  did  he  discuss  with  her 
all  current  international  questions,  but  he  read  her 
the  long  political  letters  he  received  daily  from 
abroad,  and  discussed  with  her  what  he  should  write 
in  reply. 

It  was  indeed  a  mental  training  which,  particu- 
larly in  those  'fifties  which  now  seem  so  remote 
from  us,  would  have  been  deemed  only  appropriate 
for  the  cleverest  of  boys  in  a  private  station.  But 
Prince  Albert  had  long  known  that  his  daughter 


84        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

was  a  good  deal  cleverer  than  most  boys,  and  he  was 
really  running  no  risks  in  subjecting  her  to  this  in- 
telligent preparation  for  her  high  destiny.  As 
much  as  he  could,  he  taught  her  himself,  and  such 
teaching  as  was  entrusted  to  others  he  supervised 
with  conscientious  care. 

In  one  of  his  letters  to  his  future  son-in-law,  the 
Prince  wrote:  "Vicky  is  learning  many  and  various 
things.  She  comes  to  me  every  evening  from  six  to 
seven,  when  I  put  her  through  a  kind  of  general 
catechising.  In  order  to  make  her  ideas  clear,  I 
let  her  work  out  subjects  for  herself,  which  she 
then  brings  to  me  for  correction.  She  is  at  present 
writing  a  short  compendium  of  Roman  history." 

In  order  to  give  the  Princess  a  clear  picture  of 
German  policy^ — or  rather  of  German  policy  as 
Prince  Albert  then  hoped  it  would  become,  that* 
is,  broad  and  liberal  in  conception  and  aim — ^he  set 
her  to  translate  a  German  pamphlet  published  at 
Weimar.  This  essay  by  J.  G.  Droysen,  entitled 
"Karl  August  und  die  Deutsche  Politik,"  would 
be  counted  rather  stiff  reading  even  by  experts. 
But  the  Princess  seems  to  have  done  her  task  ad- 
mirably, and  the  proud  father  sent  the  manuscript 
to  Lord  Clarendon,  who  was  genuinely  impressed 
'  by  the  way  it  had  been  translated.  He  wrote  back 
to  the  Prince : 

"In  reading  Droysen  I  felt  that  the  motto  of 
Prussia  should  be  semper  eadem,  and  in  thinking 
of  his  translator  I  felt  that  she  is  destined  to  change 


BETROTHAL  35 

that  motto  into  the  vigilando  ascendimus  of  Wei- 
mar." 

The  statesman  added  the  further  tribute  to  the 
young  translator:  "The  Princess's  manner  would 
not  be  what  it  is  if  it  were  not  the  reflection  of  a 
highly  cultivated  intellect,  which,  with  a  well- 
trained  imagination,  leads  to  the  saying  and  doing 
of  right  things  in  right  places." 


CHAPTER  III 

OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES 

The  Queen  and  Prince  Albert,  as  we  know,  much 
wished  to  keep  the  fact  of  the  Princess's  engage- 
ment a  secret  from  the  pubHc.  But  rumour  was 
naturally  busy  with  the  visit  of  the  Prussian  Prince 
to  Balmoral,  and  on  the  day  after  his  departure, 
that  is  on  October  3,  there  appeared  in  the  Times 
a  leading  article,  in  which  the  proposed  alliance  of 
the  Princess  Royal  was  alluded  to  with  anything 
but  approval — ^indeed,  in  Germany  the  article  was 
considered  grossly  insulting  both  to  the  King  of 
Prussia  and  to  Germany.  Prince  Albert  was  very 
much  angered  at  the  terms  in  which  it  was  written, 
which  he  described  as  "foolish  and  degrading  to 
this  country." 

But  the  article  was  really  inspired  by  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  violent  dislike  of  England  enter- 
tained by  the  Court  of  Prussia,  and  especially  by 
the  camarilla  surrounding  the  then  sovereign  and 
his  consort,  and  this  was  better  realised  by  publi- 
cists than  by  Royal  circles  in  England. 

Amazing  as  it  may  seem  to  us  now,  it  is  never- 
theless abundantly  clear  that  neither  Queen  Vic- 
toria nor  Prince  Albert,  well  served  as  they  were 
in  some  respects  by  the  faithful  Stockmar,  had  any 
idea  of  the  real  situation  at  the  Prussian  Court. 

36 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     37 

The  extreme  youth  of  their  daughter  made  them 
wish  to  postpone  the  marriage  for  a  while,  but  there 
is  no  hint  in  any  of  the  many  letters  and  documents 
which  have  now  come  to  light  of  the  slightest  fear 
that  she  would  lack  a  good  reception  in  that  new 
country  which  she  already  loved  as  part  of  Prince 
Albert's  fatherland.  On  the  contrary,  the  Prince 
had  evidently  persuaded  himself  that  his  daughter's 
marriage  would  be  very  popular  in  Germany — ^more 
popular  than  it  happened  to  be  just  then  in  Eng- 
land. Like  most  men  of  high,  strong,  narrow  char- 
acter. Prince  Albert  never  allowed  himself  to  per- 
ceive what  at  the  moment  he  did  not  wish  to  see. 

This  view  is  entirely  borne  out  by  the  letters 
which  Prince  Albert  wrote  then  and  later  to  the 
Prince  of  Prussia.  Even  when  addressing  one  who 
was  far  older  than  himself,  and  already  in  the  posi- 
tion of  a  ruler,  he  always  assumed  the  attitude  of 
mentor  rather  than  of  adviser;  and  as  one  glances 
over  the  immensely  long  epistles,  dealing  with  a 
state  of  things  of  which  the  writer  could  know  but 
very  little,  one  wonders  if  the  future  Emperor  Wil- 
liam had  the  patience  always  to  read  them  to  the 
very  end.  Even  were  there  no  other  evidence  ex- 
isting, these  letters  remain  to  show  how  curiously 
lacking  Prince  Albert  was  in  that  knowledge  of  ele- 
mentary human  nature  which  belongs  to  so  many 
commoner  types  of  mind. 

The  Prince  Consort's  misapprehension  is  the 
more   extraordinary   when   we   consider  that  his 


88        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

brother,  Duke  Ernest  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 
judged  the  situation  with  accuracy.  In  a  letter 
published  in  his  memoirs  the  Duke  says : 

"The  family  events  at  Balmoral  and  Stolzenfels 
[King  Frederick  William  IV  was  staying  at  Stol- 
zenfels when  he  received  the  news  of  the  engage- 
ment of  his  nephew  to  the  Princess  Royal  and  of 
his  niece.  Princess  Louise,  to  the  Prince  Regent  of 
Baden]  gave  rise  to  all  kinds  of  dissatisfaction  in 
many  reactionary  circles  of  the  Prussian  capital. 
The  more  the  Liberal  papers  of  Germany  ap- 
plauded, the  more  disagreeably  was  the  other  side 
affected  by  the  impopularity  of  the  circumstances 
which  threatened  to  strengthen,  at  the  Court  of 
Berlin,  the  influence  of  the  Royal  relations  whose 
sentiments  were  not  regarded  with  favour.  One  of 
the  pecuharities  of  Frederick  William  IV  was  that, 
with  reference  to  his  personal  sjTiipathies,  he  would 
not  submit  to  any  coercion  from  those  who  were 
familiar  with  politics  and  affairs  of  State,  so  that 
the  secret  opponents  had  to  beware  of  expressing 
their  displeasure  at  the  new  family  connections." 

As  we  have  seen,  the  King  of  Prussia  had  kept 
his  own  counsel  in  the  affair  of  his  nephew's  en- 
gagement, which  he  had  only  sanctioned  in  conse- 
quence of  Prince  Frederick  William's  strong 
personal  appeal.  His  Queen  was  intensely  pro- 
Russian,  and  as  a  result  of  the  Crimean  War  had 
conceived  a  positive  hatred  for  England  and  the 
English. 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     3& 

As  for  the  Princess  of  Prussia,  afterwards  the 
Empress  Augusta,  she  was  a  woman  of  the  highest 
cultivation,  the  old  cultivation  of  Weimar  and  of 
the  French  eighteenth  century,  but  she  had  not 
much  influence  in  Berlin,  where  even  then  she  was 
said  to  be  strongly  inclined  to  Roman  Catholicism. 
The  Prince  of  Prussia  was  himself  not  really  popu- 
lar. It  was  inevitable  therefore,  in  all  the  circum- 
stances, that  the  prospect  of  an  English  alliance 
should  become  a  fresh  cause  of  contention  and  divi- 
sion, in  which  the  voices  of  disapproval  decidedly 
prevailed. 

Even  after  the  engagement  had  been  actually 
announced.  Prince  Frederick  William  told  Lady 
Bloomfield,  the  wife  of  the  British  Minister  in  Ber- 
lin, that,  though  he  was  very  much  disappointed 
that  the  Queen  and  Prince  Albert  wished  the  mar- 
riage to  be  postponed  as  the  Princess  Royal  was  so- 
young,  it  was  perhaps  a  good  thing,  for  by  that 
time  party  spirit  in  Prussia  would  run  less  high. 
The  strength  of  that  party  spirit  was  ominously 
shown  on  the  occasion  of  the  marriage  of  the 
Prince's  sister,  Princess  Louise,  when  the  great  no- 
bility of  Prussia  ostentatiously  absented  themselves^ 
from  the  festivities. 

General  von  Gerlach,  who  as  we  have  seen  ex- 
tracted from  the  King  of  Prussia  that  dry  admission 
that  the  rumours  of  the  English  engagement  were 
well-founded,  drew  also  a  more  interesting  com- 
ment on  the  news  from  a  very  different  personage. 


40        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Bismarck,  who  was  already  regarded  as  a  man  with 
a  future,  and  at  the  time  held  an  important  diplo- 
matic post  at  the  Diet  at  Frankfort,  wrote  to  the 
Greneral  on  April  8,  1856,  a  commentary  which  was 
in  some  ways  extraordinarily  prophetic: 

"You  ask  me  in  your  letter  what  I  think  of  the 
English  marriage.  I  must  separate  the  two  words 
to  give  you  my  opinion.  The  'English'  in  it  does 
not  please  me,  the  'marriage'  may  be  quite  good, 
for  the  Princess  has  the  reputation  of  a  lady  of  brain 
and  heart.  If  the  Princess  can  leave  the  English- 
woman at  home  and  become  a  Pinissian,  then  she 
may  be  a  blessing  to  the  country.  If  our  future 
Queen  on  the  Prussian  throne  remains  the  least  bit 
English,  then  I  see  our  Court  surrounded  by  Eng- 
lish influence,  and  yet  us,  and  the  many  other  fu- 
ture sons-in-law  of  her  gracious  Majesty,  receiving 
no  notice  in  England  save  when  the  Opposition  in 
Parliament  runs  down  our  Royal  family  and 
country.  On  the  other  hand,  with  us,  British  in- 
fluence will  find  a  fruitful  soil  in  the  noted  admira- 
tion of  the  German  'Michael'  for  lords  and  guineas, 
in  the  Anglomania  of  papers,  sportsmen,  country 
gentlemen,  &c.  Every  Berliner  feels  exalted  when 
a  real  English  jockey  from  Hart  or  Lichtwald 
speaks  to  him  and  gives  him  an  opportunity  of 
breaking  the  Queen's  English  on  a  wheel.  What' 
will  it  be  like  when  the  first  lady  in  the  land  is  an 
Englishwoman  ?" 

Not  less  interesting  in  their  way  are  the  com- 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     41 

ments  which  Prince  Albert's  brother,  Duke  Ernest, 
made  on  his  niece's  betrothal : 

"The  Royal  House  of  Prussia  has  long  afforded 
in  its  genealogical  history  a  singular  spectacle  of 
waverings  between  the  West  and  East  of  Europe. 
While  family  alliances  between  Orthodox  Russia 
and  Catholic  Austria  were  almost  wholly  excluded, 
the  Protestant  faith  did  not  at  all  prevent  the  Ho- 
henzollerns  from  having  a  strong  leaning  towards 
the  family  of  the  Tsars,  and  the  connections  which 
were  thus  made  undoubtedly  exerted  their  influ- 
ence upon  Germany.  The  Crimean  War  may  be 
regarded  as  a  political  lesson  on  this  concatenation 
of  circumstances.  Was  it  not  most  extraordinary 
that  even  before  peace  had  been  concluded  with 
Russia,  the  Royal  House  of  Prussia  was,  in  its 
matrimonial  aims,  on  the  point  of  exhibiting  a 
marked  tendency  towards  the  West  of  Europe? 
The  union  of  a  Prussian  heir-apparent  with  a  Prin- 
cess of  my  House,  with  its  numerous  branches,  was 
an  event  which  at  the  time  unquestionably  seemed 
opposed  to  the  Russian  tradition. 

"If  we  remember  how  at  the  end  of  the  war 
everyone  looked  upon  my  brother  as  the  active 
force  against  Russia,  though  at  the  beginning  this 
was  by  no  means  clear,  the  marriage  of  a  Prussian 
Prince  who  was  destined  to  the  succession  with 
a  daughter  of  the  Queen  of  England  necessa- 
rily possessed  a  decided  political  character.  My 
brother,  however,  loved  his  eldest  daughter  too  well 


42        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

to  be  influenced  entirely  by  political  considerations 
in  respect  of  her  marriage;  and  I  often  had  an 
opportunity  of  observing  that  th-e  chief  wish  of  his 
heart  for  many  years  had  been  to  see  his  favourite 
child  occupy  some  exalted  position.  With  paternal 
ambition,  he  was  wont  to  picture  to  himself  his 
promising  daughter,  whose  abilities  had  been  early 
developed,  upon  a  lofty  throne,  but,  more  than  all, 
I  know  that  he  was  anxious  to  make  her  also  truly 
happy.  The  Prince  of  Prussia,  above  all  other 
scions  of  reigning  Houses,  afforded  the  greatest 
hopes  for  the  future." 

There  was  another  Court  at  which  the  news  of 
the  engagement  was  regarded  with  mixed  feelings. 
The  Emperor  Napoleon  at  first  received  the  Anglo- 
Prussian  alliance  almost  with  dismay.  He  feared 
that,  by  strengthening  Prussian  influence,  it  would 
have  the  eff*ect  of  weakening,  and  possibly  destroy- 
ing, the  French  understanding  with  England.  But 
he  allowed  himself  to  be  reassured  by  Lord  Claren- 
don, who  declared  that  Queen  Victoria's  afl'ection 
for  the  House  of  Prussia  was  private  and  personal, 
and  had  nothing  to  do  with  politics.  Prince  Fred- 
erick WilHam,  returning  by  way  of  Paris  as  a  suc- 
cessful suitor,  had  brought  the  Emperor  a  letter 
from  the  Queen,  and  to  it  Napoleon  replied,  rather 
coldly : 

"We  like  the  Prince  very  much,  and  I  do  not 
doubt  that  he  will  make  the  Princess  happy,  for 
he   seems   to  me  to   possess   every   characteristic 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     43 

quality  belonging  to  his  age  and  rank.  We  en- 
deavoured to  make  his  stay  here  as  pleasant  as 
possible,  but  I  found  his  thoughts  were  always 
either  at  Osborne  or  at  Windsor." 

It  was  on  this  visit  of  the  Prince's  that  the  Em- 
press Eugenie  made  the  following  comments  in  a 
letter  to  an  intimate  friend,  which,  in  view  of  those 
later  events  in  which  Moltke  played  so  great  a  part, 
possess  a  pathetic  significance: 

"The  Prince  is  a  tall,  handsome  man,  almost  a 
head  taller  than  the  Emperor;  he  is  slim  and  fair, 
with  a  light  yellow  moustache — in  fact,  a  Teuton 
such  as  Tacitus  described,  chivalrously  polite,  and 
not  without  a  resemblance  to  Hamlet.  His  com- 
panion, Herr  von  Moltke  (or  some  such  name),  is 
a  man  of  few  words,  but  nothing  less  than  a 
dreamer,  always  on  the  alert,  and  surprising  one 
by  the  most  telling  remarks.  The  Germans  are 
an  imposing  race.  Louis  says  it  is  the  race  of  the 
future.     Bah!  Nous  n'en  sommes  pas  encore  la." 

There  was  also  a  neighbouring  sovereign  to 
whose  opinion  all  those  who  appreciate  the  com- 
plex dynastic  relations  of  that  period  will  be  in- 
clined to  attach  importance.  This  was  the  King 
of  the  Belgians. 

Though  he  was  in  no  sense  the  noble,  selfless 
human  being  Queen  Victoria  took  him  to  be.  King 
Leopold  was  nevertheless  a  very  shrewd  judge  of 
human  nature,  and  had  evidently  seen  enough  of 
the  Princess  Royal  to  note  certain  peculiarities  in 


44        THE  EMPRESS  FREDEIRICK 

her  character  which  had  escaped  the  loving,  partial 
eyes  of  her  parents.  This  is  clearly  shown  in  a  let- 
ter written  by  Queen  Victoria  in  the  December  of 
1856.  In  this  letter  there  is  a  passage,  prefaced  by 
"Now  one  word  about  Vicky,"  in  which  the  Queen 
protests  that  she  has  never  seen  her  daughter  take 
any  predilection  to  a  person  which  was  not  motive 
by  a  certain  amiability,  goodness,  or  distinction  of 
some  kind  or  other.  She  goes  on  to  say:  "You 
need  be  under  no  apprehension  whatever  on  this 
subject;  and  she  has  moreover  great  tact  and  esprit 
de  conduite." 

This  surely  makes  it  clear  that  King  Leopold 
was  aware  of  the  sudden  fancies  which  the  Prin- 
cess Royal,  even  at  that  early  age,  often  showed 
to  those  who  attracted  her,  and  that  for  no  sufficient 
reason.  Probably  in  this  case  he  was  thinking  of 
the  Princess  Royal's  passionate  attachment  to  the 
Empress  Eugenie — an  attachment  which  lasted  all 
through  her  youth,  and  which  perhaps  had  more 
justification  for  it  than  some  other  of  her  enthusi- 
asms for  individuals. 

In  England,  at  any  rate  at  first,  the  news  of  the 
engagement  was  received  rather  coldly,  almost  as 
if  it  was  a  mesalliance,  though  the  knowledge  that 
it  was  really  a  love-match  did  much  to  reconcile 
public  opinion.  The  following  passage  from  a  let- 
ter written  by  Mr.  Cobden,  at  this  time  the  trium- 
phant protagonist  of  the  Anti-Corn  Law  League, 
reflects  as  well  as   anything  the  general  feeling 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     45 

that  the  bridegroom  was  indeed  "a  lucky  fellow": 
"It  is  generally  thought  that  the  young  Prince 
Frederick  William  of  Prussia  is  to  be  married  to 
our  Princess  Royal.  I  was  dining  tete-d-tite  with 
Mr.  Buchanan,  the  American  Minister,  a  few  days 
ago,  who  had  dined  the  day  before  at  the  Queen's 
table,  and  sat  next  to  the  Princess  Royal.  He 
was  in  raptures  about  her,  and  said  she  was  the 
most  charming  girl  he  had  ever  met:  'All  life  and 
spirit,  full  of  frolic  and  fun,  with  an  excellent  head, 
and  a  heart  as  big  as  a  mountmn^ — ^those  were  his 
words.  Another  friend  of  mine.  Colonel  Fitz- 
mayer,  dined  with  the  Queen  last  week,  and,  in 
writing  to  me  a  description  of  the  company,  he  says 
that  when  the  Princess  Royal  smiles,  *it  makes  one 
feel  as  if  additional  light  were  thrown  upon  the 
scene.'  So  I  should  judge  that  this  said  Prince  is 
a  lucky  fellow,  and  I  trust  he  will  make  a  good  hus- 
band. If  not,  although  a  man  of  peace,  I  shall 
consider  it  a  casus  helUr 

To  the  bride's  parents,  if  not  to  herself  and  her 
betrothed,  the  fact  that  the  marriage  negotiations 
were  not  quite  pleasantly  conducted  must  have  been 
not  only  painful  but  astonishing.  It  was  actually 
suggested  that  the  ceremony  should  take  place  in 
Berlin,  but  Queen  Victoria  very  properly  scouted 
the  proposal,  which  was  really  in  the  circumstances 
disagreeably  like  an  insult.  She  wrote  in  her  em- 
phatic, italicising  way  to  Lord  Clarendon,  the 
Foreign  Secretary: 


46        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

"The  Queen  never  could  consent  to  it,  both  for 
public  and  private  reasons,  and  the  assumption  of 
its  being  too  much  for  a  Prince  Royal  of  Prussia 
to  come  over  to  marry  the  Princess  Royal  of  Great 
Britain  IN  England  is  too  absurd,  to  say  the  least. 
The  Queen  must  say  that  there  never  was  even  the 
shadow  of  a  doubt  on  Prince  Frederick  William's 
part  as  to  where  the  marriage  should  take  place, 
and  she  suspects  this  to  be  the  mere  gossip  of  the 
Berliners.  Whatever  may  be  the  usual  practice  of 
Prussian  Princes,  it  is  not  every  day  that  one  mar- 
ries the  eldest  daughter  of  the  Queen  of  England. 
The  question  therefore  must  be  considered  as  settled 
and  closed." 

In  view  of  all  this  and  of  what  was  to  befall  the 
Princess  Royal  in  the  land  for  which  she  even  then 
cherished  so  fond  an  affection,  and  of  which  she 
had  already  formed  so  high  an  ideal,  there  is  some- 
thing intensely  pathetic  in  the  blindness  of  her 
parents  to  the  real  conditions  of  her  future  life. 
This  blindness  is  shown  with  amazing  clearness  in 
the  sentence,  certainly  inspired  and  very  likely  writ- 
ten by  Queen  Victoria  herself,  which  concludes  the 
chapter,  in  Sir  Theodore  Martin's  Life  of  the 
Prince  Consort,  dealing  with  the  betrothal  of  the 
Princess  Royal: 

"No  consideration,  public  or  private,  would  have 
induced  the  Queen  or  himself  [i.e..  Prince  Albert] 
to  imperil  the  happiness  of  their  child  by  a  marriage 
in  which  she  could  not  have  found  scope  to  prac- 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     47 

tise  the  constitutional  principles  in  which  she  had 
been  reared." 

The  idea  that  the  Prussia  of  that  day,  or  indeed 
of  any  day,  would  have  amiably  afforded  a  foreign 
princess  scope  to  practise  constitutional  principles 
of  any  sort  seems  extraordinary,  and  yet,  as  we 
shall  see,  there  was  some  little  justification  for  it 
at  the  time,  though  it  was  quickly  swept  away  by 
the  course  of  events. 

The  confirmation  of  the  Princess  Royal  took 
place  on  March  20,  1856,  in  the  private  chapel  at 
Windsor  Castle.  The  Princess  was  led  in  by  her 
father,  followed  by  her  godfather,  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,  who  had  come  to  England  on  purpose, 
and  the  Royal  children  and  most  of  the  members 
of  the  Royal  family  were  present,  as  were  also  the 
Ministers,  the  great  ofHoers  of  State,  and  many  of 
those  whom  Disraeli  was  wont  to  describe  as  the 
"high  nobility." 

In  fact,  everything  was  done  to  make  the  rite  a 
State  ceremony — a  striking  contrast  to  the  more 
recent  practice  by  which  the  princes  and  princesses 
of  England  have  all  been  confirmed  privately,  in 
the  presence  of  their  near  relatives  only. 

The  second  Lord  Granville,  the  statesman  who 
shared  with  the  Princess  Royal  the  flattering  nick- 
name of  "Pussy,"  wrote  to  Lord  Canning  this  lively 
account  of  the  confirmation.  The  inaudible  Arch- 
bishop was  J.  B.  Sumner;  his  Lordship  of  Oxford 
Was  the  Samuel  Wilberforce,  called  by  his  enemies 


48        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

"Soapy  Sam,"  who  played  a  conspicuous  part  in 
the  Court  and  social  life  of  the  period: 

"Had  a  slight  spasm  in  bed;  sent  for  Meryon. 
It  was  well  before  he  came.  He  desired  me  not 
to  go  to  Windsor  for  the  confirmation  of  the  Prin- 
cess Royal.  I  went,  and  am  none  the  worse;  my 
complexion  beautiful.  It  was  an  interesting  sight. 
As  Pam  observed,  'Ah,  ah!  a  touching  ceremony; 
ah,  ah!'  The  King  of  the  Belgians  the  same  as  I 
remember  him  when  I  was  a  boy,  and  he  used  to 
live  for  weeks  at  the  Embassy,  using  my  father's 
horses,  and  boring  my  mother  to  death.  The  Prin- 
cess Royal  went  through  her  part  well.  The  Prin- 
cess Alice  cried  violently.  The  Archbishop  read 
what  seemed  a  dull  address ;  luckily  it  was  inaudible. 
The  Bishop  of  Oxford  rolled  out  a  short  prayer 
with  conscious  superiority.  Pam  reminded  Lord 
Aberdeen  of  their  being  confirmed  at  Cambridge, 
as  if  it  was  yesterday.  I  must  go  to  bed,  so  excuse 
haste  and  bad  pens,  as  the  sheep  said  to  the  farmer 
when  it  jumped  out  of  the  fold." 

There  was  certainly  too  much  pomp  about  the 
Princess  Royal's  confirmation  for  the  taste  of 
another  spectator.  Princess  Mary  of  Cambridge, 
afterwards  Duchess  of  Teck.  She  succeeds  in 
drawing  in  a  few  words  a  remarkably  vivid  picture 
of  what  happened: 

"The  ceremony  was  very  short  (the  service  for 
the  day  being  omitted)  and  not  solemn  enough  for 
my  feeling,  although  the  anthems  were  fine  and 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     49 

well-chosen.  It  was  followed  by  a  great  deal  of 
standing  in  the  Green  Drawing-room,  where  the 
Queen  held  a  kind  of  tournee  in  honour  of  the 
Ministers,  who  had  come  down  for  the  confirma- 
tion; after  which  dear  Victoria,  who  looked  par- 
ticularly nice,  and  was  very  much  impressed  with 
the  solemnity  of  the  rite,  received  our  presents  on 
the  occasion,  and  about  half -past  one  we  sat  down 
to  lunch  en  famille  as  usual." 

It  was  on  April  29,  1856,  that  the  betrothal  was 
publicly  announced  on  the  conclusion  of  the  Cri- 
mean War,  and  in  the  following  month  the  Prin- 
cess appeared  as  a  debutante  at  a  Court  ball  at 
Buckingham  Palace. 

This  spring  "Fritz  of  Prussia,"  as  his  future 
father-in-law  called  him,  came  to  pay  a  long  visit 
to  his  fiancee.  It  is  curious  that  Queen  Victoria, 
in  spite  of  her  strong  belief  in  love  as  the  only 
right  foundation  for  an  engagement,  had  by  no 
means  the  English  notion  of  discreetly  leaving  the 
young  people  a  good  deal  alone  together.  On  the 
contrary,  she  seems  to  have  entirely  adopted  the 
Continental  practice  of  chaperonage;  a  passage  in 
a  letter  written  by  her  to  King  Leopold  shows  that 
she  was  always  with  them,  and  that  she  naturally 
found  it  very  boring,  but  she  endured  it  because  she 
thought  it  was  her  duty. 

Prince  Frederick  William  was  still  in  England 
when  in  June  the  Princess  Royal  met  with  rather 
a  terrifying  accident,  which  is  worthy  of  mention 


50        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

because  it  showed  how  strong  was  her  character 
and  how  high  her  physical  courage. 

The  Princess  was  sealing  a  letter  at  her  writing- 
table,  when  suddenly  the  seaHng-wax  flamed  out 
and  the  flames  caught  her  muslin  sleeve.  Her 
English  governess,  Miss  Hildyard,  was  fortunately 
seated  close  to  her,  and  her  music  mistress,  Mrs. 
Anderson,  was  also  in  the  room,  giving  Princess 
Alice  a  lesson.  They  sprang  at  once  to  the  Prin- 
cess's assistance  and  beat  out  the  flames  with  a 
hearthrug;  but  not  before  her  right  arm  had  been 
severely  burned  from  below  the  elbow  to  the 
shoulder.  She  showed  the  greatest  self-possession 
and  presence  of  mind,  her  first  words  being:  "Send 
for  Papa,  and  do  not  tell  Mamma  till  he  has  been 
told." 

The  Princess  Royal  had  a  long  engagement, 
probably  the  longest  that  any  lady  of  her  rank  has 
had,  at  least  in  modern  times,  but  the  months  as 
they  went  by  were  fully  occupied  with  her  father's 
sedulous  preparation  of  her  intellect,  as  well  as  with 
the  more  frivolous  preparations  of  her  trousseau. 
In  May  1857  Parliament  voted  for  the  Princess 
a  dowry  of  £40,000  and  an  annuity  of  £4000 — a' 
provision  which  does  not  now  seem  to  have  erred 
on  the  side  of  generosity.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  what  economists  call  "the  purchasing 
power  of  the  sovereign"  was  considerably  greater 
then  than  now,  and  to  find  the  modem  equivalent 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     51 

of  these  sums  one  would  have  to  add  probably  as 
much  as  25  per  cent. 

Prince  Frederick  William,  attended  by  Count 
Moltke,  paid  another  visit  to  England  in  June,  and 
made  his  first  public  appearance  with  the  Princess 
at  the  Manchester  Art  Exhibition.  The  young 
couple  seem  to  have  corresponded  on  quite  the  old- 
fashioned  voluminous  scale.  After  the  Prince  had 
gone  home  again  in  August,  Moltke  writes  to  his 
wife  that  the  Princess  had  written  a  letter  of  forty 
pages  to  the  Prince,  and  he  adds  the  sarcastic  com- 
ment: "How  the  news  must  have  accumulated!" 

Whatever  the  aide-de-camp  may  have  thought, 
the  Prince  himself  was  certainly  a  happy  lover  in 
his  own  characteristically  serious  way.  We  find 
him  a  few  months  later  writing  to  his  French  tutor, 
the  Swiss  Pastor  Godet,  a  long  and  moving  letter, 
in  which  he  alludes  very  frankly  to  the  difficulties 
which  even  then  surrounded  his  position.  Then, 
going  on  to  speak  of  his  coming  marriage,  he  says : 

"Yes,  if  you  knew  my  betrothed  you  would,  I  am 
sure,  thoroughly  understand  my  choice,  and  you 
would  realise  that  I  am  truly  happy.  I  can  but 
bless  and  thank  God  to  have  given  me  the  happiness 
of  finding  in  her  everything  which  ensures  the  true 
union  of  hearts,  and  repose  and  calm  in  home  life, 
for  I  do  not  care,  as  you  know,  for  the  world, 
which  I  find  empty  and  with  very  little  happiness 
in  it." 


52        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

The  seyenteenth  birthday  of  the  Princess  Royal, 
the  last  she  was  to  spend  with  her  family  before  her 
marriage,  was  saddened  by  the  death  of  Queen  Vic- 
toria's half-brother,  Prince  Leiningen.  The  Royal 
family  were  all  extremely  fond  of  him,  especially 
the  Princess  Royal,  to  whom  he  had  ever  shown 
himself  a  most  affectionate  and  kindly  uncle.  This 
was  the  first  time  the  Princess  had  come  in  close  con- 
tact with  death,  and  it  made  the  more  impression 
on  her  owing  to  the  passionate  grief  which  her 
grandmother,  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  showed  at  the 
loss  of  her  only  son. 

The  wedding  had  now  been  fixed  for  January  25, 
1858,  and  already  in  October  the  bride  had  taken 
leave  of  those  places  in  Balmoral  which  were  dear 
to  her.  Of  this  Prince  Albert  writes  to  the 
widowed  Duchess  of  Gotha : 

"Vicky  suffers  from  the  feeling  that  all  those 
places  she  visits  she  must  look  upon  for  the  last 
time  as  her  home.  The  Maid  of  Orleans  with  her 
'Joan  says  to  you  an  everlasting  farewell,'  often 
comes  into  my  mind."  And  in  another  letter: 
"The  departure  from  here  will  be  heavy  for  all  of 
us,  particularly  for  Vicky  who  is  going  away  for 
good,  and  the  good  Highland  people  who  love  her 
so  much  say:  T  suppose  we  shall  never  see  you 
again,'  which  naturally  upsets  her." 

These  rather  sentimental  farewells  had  been  go- 
ing on  for  a  long  time.  Queen  Victoria,  in  a  letter 
a   fortnight   before  the   wedding,    says   that   her 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     53 

daughter  had  had  ever  since  January  1857  a  suc- 
cession of  emotions  and  leave-takings  which  would 
be  most  trying  to  anyone,  but  particularly  so  to  so 
young  a  girl  with  such  powerful  feelings.  The 
loving  mother  goes  on  to  say  that  she  is  much  im- 
proved in  self-control,  and  is  so  clever  and  sensible 
that  her  parents  can  talk  to  her  of  anything. 

Her  other  parent,  in  a  letter  to  his  grandmother, 
spoke  of  the  frightful  gap  which  the  separation  for 
ever  of  this  dear  daughter  would  make  in  the  family 
circle,  and  then,  with  his  characteristic  optimism, 
he  adds  that  in  Germany  people  seem  ready  to  wel- 
come her  with  the  greatest  friendliness. 

Here  perhaps  is  the  place  to  consider  what  sort 
of  a  country  was  the  "Germany"  whither  Prince 
Albert  was  sending  his  cherished  daughter  as  fu- 
ture Queen. 

To  begin  with,  it  was  not  yet  "Germany"  at  all; 
it  was  Prussia.  We  are  well  accustomed  in  the 
twentieth  century  to  regard  Germany  as  one  of  the 
Great  Powers  of  Europe,  with  her  enormous  army 
and  her  expanding  navy  and  mercantile  marine, 
with  all  else  for  which  the  Fatherland  stands  in 
science,  letters,  and  industry.  It  is  necessary,  how- 
ever, to  realise  that  the  Princess  Royal's  marriage 
was  to  bring  her  to  what  was  then  a  very  different 
country.  Prussia  was  in  fact  not  to  be  compared  in 
power,  wealth,  or  security  with  the  Princess's  native 
land.  Including  Silesia,  Brandenburg,  and  West- 
phalia, the  country  only  had  a  population  of  some 


54        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

seventeen  millions  in  1858,  or  about  that  of  England 
alone.  The  revenue  was  comparatively  insignifi- 
cant, but  the  army  numbered  160,000  officers  and 
men ;  the  navy  had  55  ships,  3500  officers  and  men, 
and  265  guns ;  while  the  mercantile  marine  is  given 
as  826  ships  of  268,000  tons. 

The  Germanic  Confederation  had  superseded  the 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine  formed  by  Napoleon. 
It  included  Austria,  as  well  as  Prussia  and  the  vari- 
ous German  States,  and  by  the  nature  of  its  consti- 
tution it  was  weak  where  it  should  have  been  strong. 
The  jealousy  felt  by  Austria  for  the  hegemony  of 
Prussia  among  the  smaller  German  States,  and  the 
internal  jealousies  of  those  States  among  them- 
selves, almost  doomed  the  Confederation  to 
impotence.  Indeed,  the  primary  object  of  the 
Confederation,  namely,  the  maintenance  of  the  ex- 
ternal security  of  the  States,  was  in  constant  dan- 
ger, owing  partly  to  the  complicated  regulations 
for  voting  in  the  Diet,  partly  to  a  military  system 
which  was  full  of  compromises  and  certain  to  pro- 
duce, on  the  outbreak  of  war,  a  maximum  of  con- 
fusion and  a  minimum  of  efficiency. 

The  constitutional  liberties  of  the  individual 
States  had  been  gravely  menaced  by  a  series  of 
feudal  decrees  passed  between  1830  and  1840; 
while  in  1850  the  Confederation  had  actually  sup- 
pressed the  constitution  of  Hesse-Cassel.  In  Prus- 
sia itself  the  Manteuffel  Ministry  had  been  work- 
ing, beneath  the  cloak  of  the  constitutional  reforms 


THE  PRINCESS  ROYAL 
VICTORIA  ADELAIDE   MARY  LOUISA 

BORN  NOVEMBER  21,  1840 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     55 

granted  in  1850,  to  establish  a  centralised  police 
State  on  the  model  of  the  French  prefet  system 
combined  with  typical  Prussian  medisevalism. 

It  was  in  1847  that  King  Frederick  William  IV 
uttered  the  famous  words  that  he  would  never  allow 
a  piece  of  written  parchment  to  be  placed,  like  a 
second  Providence,  between  God  in  heaven  and  his 
country.  Now  the  constitution  of  only  two  years 
later  did  seem  to  be  such  a  piece  of  written  parch- 
ment, but  this  was  only  in  appearance,  because  it 
did  not  settle  by  organic  laws  the  crucial  questions 
of  political  liberty,  but  left  them  in  practice  to  the 
Chambers  which  it  called  into  existence.  The  task 
of  Baron  ManteufFel's  Ministry,  therefore,  re- 
solved itself  into  obtaining  a  sufficiently  reactionary 
Parliament  which  could  be  trusted  to  remove  the 
foundations  of  political  liberty  laid  by  the  great 
constitutional  lawgiver,  Stein,  and  his  follower, 
Hardenburg. 

It  was  not  till  1855,  three  years  before  the  Prin- 
cess Royal's  marriage,  that  a  thoroughly  servile 
Chamber  was  obtained.  The  two  principal  reforms 
effected  by  Stein,  namely,  the  localising  of  the  ad- 
ministration and  the  independence  of  officials,  were 
abohshed,  and  the  administration  was  carefully 
centralised  on  the  French  model,  and  the  whole 
official  class  was  made  dependent  upon  the  Gov- 
ernment. This  latter  object  was  effected  by  an 
ingenious  theory — ^that  any  opposition  to  a  con- 
stitutional Ministry  which  enjoyed  the  confidence 


56        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

of  the  sovereign  became  constructively  an  offence 
against  the  Crown,  and  therefore  punishable. 

It  is  significant  that  it  took  five  years  before  a 
really  servile  Chamber  was  obtained,  even  by  these 
methods.  The  Prussian  medisevalists  did  not  alto- 
gether like  the  police  supremacy  established  by  the 
Manteuffel  Ministry;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  by 
their  alliance  with  the  Ministry  they  had  the  satis- 
faction of  staving  off  certain  reforms  which  they 
especially  dreaded,  notably  the  equalisation  of  the 
land  tax,  the  removal  of  the  rural  police  from  the 
control  of  the  lord  of  the  manor,  and  the  liberal 
organisation  of  the  rural  communes.  Moreover, 
they  were  given  practical  freedom  to  do  what  they 
liked  in  ecclesiastical  and  educational  administra- 
tion. 

It  must  be  remembered  that,  while  England  has 
had  from  time  to  time  her  medigevahsts,  they  have, 
on  the  whole,  failed  to  make  any  real  impression 
on  politics,  and  have  exerted  their  influence  only  in 
the  province  of  religious  belief  and  in  that  of  art. 
It  was  different  in  Prussia,  where  feudalism  as  a 
practical  system  had  a  much  longer  life. 

Numerous  small  States  within  the  kingdom  of 
Prussia,  with  their  feudal  powers  and  rights,  had 
to  be  broken  up  by  the  Great  Elector  as  a  first 
step  towards  a  Prussian  nationality.  It  was  really 
by  continuing  the  Great  Elector's  work  in  this 
respect  that  Stein  had  aroused  that  national  move- 
ment which  eventually  threw  off  the  French  yoke. 


OPINION  IN  BOTH  COUNTRIES     57 

But  Frederick  William  III  had  set  himself  to  re- 
organise the  provincial  States  on  the  basis  of  a  strict 
observance  of  their  historical  rights.  This  reorgan- 
isation did  not  satisfy  the  medisevals  because  it 
failed  to  provide  any  real  check  upon  the  bureau- 
cratic character  of  the  remaining  part  of  the  King's 
administration. 

At  the  time  of  the  Princess  Royal's  marriage 
there  still  survived  an  extraordinary  number  of 
little  States,  each  with  its  ruling  family,  and  for  the 
most  part  as  poor  as  they  were  proud. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MARRIAGE 

It  is  the  universal  testimony  that  at  the  time  of 
her  wedding  the  Princess  Royal  was  at  the  height 
of  her  youthful  beauty  and  charm.  This  is  not 
the  mere  flattery  of  courtiers,  to  whom  all  Royal 
ladies  are  beautiful  as  a  matter  of  course;  it  is 
the  opinion  expressed  by  a  multitude  of  observers 
in  contemporary  private  letters,  diaries,  and  rem- 
iniscences. And  of  all  the  descriptions  of  her 
at  this  time  in  existence  the  most  lifelike  we  owe 
to  a  German  lady  of  rank,  one  of  the  Princess's 
future  ladies-in-waiting.  Countess  Walpurga  de 
Hohenthal,  who  afterwards  married  Sir  Augustus 
Berkeley  Paget,  British  Ambassador  in  Rome  and 
Vienna.  This  lady  gives  in  her  book  of  reminis- 
cences. Scenes  and  Memories,  this  vivid  vignette  of 
her  Royal  mistress  as  she  looked  just  before  her 
marriage : 

"The  Princess  appeared  extraordinarily  young. 
All  the  childish  roundness  still  clung  to  her  and 
made  her  look  shorter  than  she  really  was.  She 
was  dressed  in  a  fashion  long  disused  on  the  Conti- 
nent, in  a  plum-coloured  silk  dress  fastened  at  the 
back.  Her  hair  was  drawn  off*  her  forehead.  Her 
•eyes  were  what  struck  me  most;  the  iris  was  green 

58 


MARRIAGE  59 

like  the  sea  on  a  sunny  day,  and  the  white  had  a 
peculiar  shimmer  which  gave  them  the  fascination 
that,  together  with  a  smile  showing  her  small  and 
beautiful  teeth,  bewitched  those  who  approached 
her.  The  nose  was  unusually  small  and  turned  up 
slightly,  and  the  complexion  was  ruddy,  perhaps 
too  much  so  for  one  thing,  but  it  gave  the  idea  of 
perfect  health  and  strength.  The  fault  of  the  face 
lay  in  the  squareness  of  the  lower  features,  and  there 
was  even  a  look  of  determination  about  the  chin, 
but  the  very  gentle  and  almost  timid  manner  pre- 
vented one  realising  this  at  first.  The  voice  was 
very  delightful,  never  going  up  to  high  tones,  but 
lending  a  peculiar  charm  to  the  slight  foreign  ac- 
cent with  which  the  Princess  spoke  both  English 
and  German." 

As  we  have  already  seen.  Queen  Victoria  felt 
strongly  that  it  was  not  every  day  that  even  a 
future  King  married  the  daughter  of  a  Queen  of 
England,  and  she  was  resolved  to  surround  the 
ceremony  with  all  possible  pomp  and  circimistance. 
The  reader  may  for  the  most  part  be  spared  the  de- 
tails of  these  functions.  What  is  interesting  to 
us,  looking  back  on  that  age  which  seems  so  remote 
from  our  own,  is  the  curious  note  of  tearful  senti- 
ment, which  some  would  now  call  by  a  harsher  name, 
yet  mingled  with  high  hopes  and  pathetic  confidence 
in  the  future. 

The  Court  spent  the  early  part  of  January  1858 
at  Windsor  Castle,  and  on  the  15th,  the  day  of  the 


60        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

departure  for  London,  the  Queen  wrote  in  her 
diary : 

*'Went  to  look  at  the  rooms  prepared  for  Vicky's 
'Honeymoon.'  Very  pretty.  It  quite  agitated  me 
to  look  at  them.  Poor,  poor  child!  We  took  a 
short  walk  with  Vicky,  who  was  dreadfully  upset  at 
this  real  break  in  her  life;  the  real  separation 
from  her  childhood!  She  slept  for  the  last  time 
in  the  same  room  with  Alice.  Now  all  this  is  cut 
off." 

And  we  may  quote,  too,  a  characteristic  passage 
from  a  letter  written  to  the  Queen  by  her  sister, 
the  Princess  of  Hohenlohe-Langenburg,  with  refer- 
ence to  another  young  Royal  bride : 

"Poor  little  wife  now!  I  have  quite  the  same 
feehng  as  you  have  on  these  dear  young  creatures 
entering  the  new  life  of  duties,  privations,  and 
trials,  on  their  marrying  so  young.  Alas !  the  sweet 
blossoms  coming  in  contact  with  rude  Hfe  and  all 
its  realities  so  soon,  are  changed  into  mature  and  less 
lovely  persons,  so  painful  to  a  mother's  eye  and  feel- 
ing; and  yet  we  must  be  happy  to  see  them  fulfil 
their  Bestimmung  (destiny) ;  but  it  is  a  happiness 
not  unmixed  with  many  a  bitter  drop  of  anguisH 
and  pain." 

By  the  19th  all  the  Royal  guests  had  arrived  in 
London,  among  them  the  King  of  the  Belgians 
with  his  sons,  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Prussia, 
and  Princes  and  Princesses  in  such  numbers  that 
the   accommodation  of  Buckingham  Palace  was 


MARRIAGE  61 

taxed  to  the  uttermost.  "Such  a  house-full,"  says 
the  Queen  in  her  diary.  "Such  bustle  and  excite- 
ment!" Between  eighty  and  ninety  sat  down  to 
dinner  at  the  Royal  table  daily.  "After  dinner," 
says  the  same  record,  "a  party,  and  a  very  gay  and 
pretty  dance.  It  was  very  animated,  all  the 
Princes  dancing." 

The  first  of  the  public  festivities  was  a  per- 
formance at  Her  Majesty's  Theatre  of  Macbeth^ 
by  Helen  Faucit  and  Phelps,  while  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Keeley  appeared  in  a  farce.  This  was  the  first 
of  four  representations,  organised  at  the  Queen's 
command  in  honour  of  the  marriage,  and  each  was 
made  the  occasion  of  an  extraordinary  popular 
demonstration.  A  great  ball,  at  which  over  a 
thousand  guests  were  present,  was  given  at  the 
Palace,  and  there  was  also  a  State  performance  of 
Balfe's  opera.  The  Rose  of  Castille. 

Prince  Frederick  William  arrived  on  January 
23,  and  on  the  next  day  Queen  Victoria  writes : 

"Poor  dear  Vicky's  last  unmarried  day.  An 
eventful  one,  reminding  me  so  much  of  mine. 
After  breakfast  we  arranged  in  the  large  drawing- 
room  the  gifts  (splendid  ones)  for  Vicky  in  two 
tables.  Fritz's  pearls  are  the  largest  I  ever  saw, 
one  row.  On  a  third  table  were  three  fine  cande- 
labra, our  gift  to  Fritz.  Vicky  was  in  ecstasies, 
quite  startled,  and  Fritz  delighted." 

More  magnificent  presents  kept  on  arriving,  and 
the  Queen  goes  on : 


62        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

"Very  busy — interrupted  and  disturbed  every 
instant!  Dear  Vicky  gave  me  a  brooch  (a  very 
pretty  one)  before  Church  with  her  hair;  and, 
clasping  me  in  her  arms,  said :  *I  hope  to  be  worthy 
to  be  your  child!'"  At  the  end  of  the  day  the 
Queen  and  Prince  "accompanied  Vicky  to  her  room, 
kissed  her  and  gave  her  our  blessing,  and  she  was 
much  overcome.  I  pressed  her  in  my  arms,  and  she 
clung  to  her  truly  adored  papa  with  much  tender- 
ness." 

Of  the  wedding  itself  Queen  Victoria  made  her- 
self the  historian  for  all  time,  and  we  cannot  do 
better  than  quote  her  vividly  emotional  account  of 
the  scene: 

"Monday,  January  25. — The  second  most  event- 
ful day  in  my  life  as  regards  feelings.  I  felt  as  if 
I  were  being  married  over  again  myself,  only  much 
more  nervous,  for  I  had  not  that  blessed  feeling 
which  I  had  then,  which  raises  and  supports  one,  of 
giving  myself  up  for  life  to  him  whom  I  loved  and 
worshipped — then  and  ever!  Got  up,  and,  while 
dressing,  dearest  Vicky  came  to  see  me,  looking 
well  and  composed,  and  in  a  fine  quiet  frame  of 
mind.  She  had  slept  more  soundly  and  better  than 
before.  This  relieved  me  greatly.  Gave  her  a 
pretty  book  called  The  Bridal  Offering/' 

Before  the  procession  started  for  the  Chapel 
Royal  at  St.  James's  Palace,  the  Queen  and  the 
Princess  were  daguerreotyped  together  with  Prince 
Albert,  but,  says  the  Queen,  "I  trembled  so,  my 


MARRIAGE  63 

likeness  has  come  out  indistinct."  Her  Majesty 
continues : 

"Then  came  the  time  to  go.  The  sun  was  shining 
brightly;  thousands  had  been  out  since  very  early, 
shouting,  bells  ringing,  &c.  Albert  and  Uncle,  in 
Field  Marshal's  uniform,  with  batons,  and  the  two 
eldest  boys  went  first.  Then  the  three  girls  in  pink 
satin  trimmed  with  Newport  lace,  Alice  with  a 
wreath,  and  the  two  others  with  only  bouquets  in 
their  hair  of  cornflowers  [the  favourite  flower  of 
Queen  Louise  of  Prussia  and  of  all  her  children  and 
descendants],  and  marguerites;  next  the  four  boys 
in  Highland  dress.  The  flourish  of  trumpets  and 
cheering  of  thousands  made  my  heart  sink  within 
me.  Vicky  was  in  the  carriage  with  me,  sitting 
opposite.  At  St.  James's  took  her  into  a  dress- 
ing-room prettily  arranged,  where  were  Uncle, 
Albert,  and  the  eight  bridesmaids,  who  looked 
charming  in  white  tulle,  with  wreaths  and  bouquets 
of  pink  roses  and  white  heather. 

"Then  the  procession  was  formed,  just  as  at  my 
marriage,  only  how  small  the  old  Royal  family  has 
become!  Mama  last  before  me — then  Lord  Pal- 
merston  with  the  Sword  of  State — then  Bertie  and 
Alfred.  I  with  the  two  little  boys  on  either  side 
(which  they  say  had  a  most  touching  efl*ect)  and 
the  three  girls  behind.  The  efl*ect  was  very  solemn 
and  impressive  as  we  passed  through  the  rooms, 
down  the  staircase,  and  across  a  covered-in  court. 

"The  Chapel,  though  too  small,  looked  extremely 


64        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

imposing  and  well, — full  as  it  was  of  so  many  ele- 
gantly-dressed ladies,  uniforms,  &c.  The  Arch- 
bishop, &c.  at  the  altar,  and  on  either  side  of  it  the 
Royal  personages.  Behind  me  Mama  and  the 
Cambridges,  the  girls  and  little  boys  near  me,  and 
opposite  me  the  dear  Princess  of  Prussia,  and  the 
foreign  Princes  behind  her.  Bertie  and  Affie,  not 
far  from  the  Princess,  a  little  before  the  others. 

"The  drums  and  trumpets  played  marches,  and 
the  organ  played  others  as  the  procession  ap- 
proached and  entered.  There  was  a  pause  be- 
tween each,  but  not  a  very  long  one,  and  the  effect 
was  thrilling  and  striking  as  you  heard  the  music 
gradually  coming  nearer  and  nearer.  Fritz  looked 
pale  and  much  agitated,  but  behaved  with  the 
greatest  self-possession,  bowing  to  us,  and  then 
kneeling  down  in  a  most  devotional  manner.  Then 
came  the  bride's  procession  and  our  darling  Flower 
looked  very  touching  and  lovely,  with  such  an  inno- 
cent, confident,  and  serious  expression,  her  veil 
hanging  back  over  her  shoulders,  walking  between 
her  beloved  father  and  dearest  Uncle  Leopold, 
who  had  been  at  her  christening  and  confirmation. 

"My  last  fear  of  being  overcome  vanished  on 
seeing  Vicky's  quiet,  calm,  and  composed  manner. 
It  was  beautiful  to  see  her  kneeling  with  Fritz, 
their  hands  joined,  and  the  train  borne  by  eight 
young  ladies,  who  looked  like  a  cloud  of  maidens 
hovering  round  her,  as  they  knelt  near  her.  Dear- 
est Albert  took  her  by  the  hand  to  give  her  away. 


MARRIAGE  65 

The  music  was  very  fine,  the  Archbishop  very- 
nervous;  Fritz  spoke  very  plainly.  Vicky  too. 
The  Archbishop  omitted  some  of  the  passages." 

Sarah  Lady  Lyttelton,  too,  noted  the  calm  and 
rather  serious,  though  happy  and  loving,  expres- 
sion of  the  Princess's  look  and  manner — "not  a  bit 
of  bridal  missiness  and  jflutter." 

Another  eye-witness  of  the  scene  supplies  a 
moving  touch:  "The  light  of  happiness  in  the 
eyes  of  the  bride  appealed  to  the  most  reserved 
among  the  spectators,  and  an  audible  'God  bless 
you!'  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth  along  the  line." 

The  Queen's  description  proceeds: 

"When  the  ceremony  was  over,  we  both  em- 
braced Vicky  tenderly,  but  she  shed  not  one  tear, 
and  then  she  kissed  her  grandmama,  and  I  Fritz. 
She  then  went  up  to  her  new  parents,  and  we 
crossed  over  to  the  dear  Prince  and  Princess  [of 
Prussia],  who  were  both  much  moved,  Albert 
shaking  hands  with  them,  and  I  kissing  both  and 
pressing  their  hands  with  a  most  happy  feeling. 
My  heart  was  so  full.  Then  the  bride  and  bride- 
groom left  hand  in  hand,  followed  by  the  support- 
ers, the  'Wedding  ]VIarch'  by  Mendelssohn  being 
played,  and  we  all  went  up  to  the  Throne  Room 
to  sign  the  register.  Here  general  congratula- 
tions, shaking  hands  with  all  the  relations.  I  felt 
so  moved,  so  overjoyed  and  relieved,  that  I  could 
have  embraced  everybody." 

The  young  couple  drove  off  to  Windsor  for  a 


66        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

honeymoon  of  only  two  days,  as  was  then  the  cus- 
tom with  Royal  personages. 

"We  dined,"  says  Queen  Victoria,  ''  en  famille, 
but  I  felt  so  lost  without  Vicky."  In  the  evening, 
however,  there  came  a  messenger  from  Windsor 
with  a  letter  from  the  bride,  containing  the  news 
that  the  Eton  boys  had  dragged  the  carriage  of  the 
Prince  and  Princess  from  the  railway  station  to  the 
Castle,  and  that  they  had  been  welcomed  by  im- 
mense crowds  and  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm. 
All  London,  too,  was  illuminated,  and  there  were 
great  rejoicings  in  the  streets.  The  Duke  of  Buc- 
cleuch  made  it  his  business  to  mingle  with  the 
humblest  people  in  the  crowds,  and  he  afterwards 
greatly  pleased  the  Queen  with  his  account  of  their 
simple,  hearty  enthusiasm. 

Of  those  two  days  at  Windsor,  the  bride,  thirty- 
six  years  later,  when  she  was  already  a  widow, 
spoke  to  her  old  friend.  Bishop  Boyd  Carpenter. 
She  received  the  Bishop  in  the  red  brocade  drawing- 
room  which  overlooks  the  Long  Walk,  a  room 
which  awakened  memories:  "We  spent,"  she  said, 
"our  honeymoon  at  Windsor.  This  room  was  one 
of  those  we  occupied.  It  was  our  private  sitting- 
room.  I  remember  how  we  sat  here — ^two  young 
innocent  things — almost  two  shy  to  talk  to  one  an- 
other." 

The  Court  moved  to  Windsor  on  the  27th,  and 
on  the  following  day  the  bridegroom  was  invested 
with  the  order  of  the  Garter.     On  the  29th  the 


MARRIAGE  67 

Court  returned  to  town,  and  in  the  evening  the 
Queen  and  Prince  Albert,  and  the  bridal  pair,  went 
in  state  to  Her  Majesty's  Theatre.  The  audience 
demanded  the  National  Anthem  twice  before  and 
once  after  the  play,  two  additional  verses  appro- 
priate to  the  occasion  being  added.  Prince  Fred- 
erick WiUiam  led  his  bride  to  the  front  of  the 
Royal  box,  and  they  stood  to  receive  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  house. 

On  January  30  the  Queen  held  a  Drawing-room, 
at  which  there  were  no  presentations,  "only  con- 
gratulations," and  the  Princess  wore  her  wedding 
dress  and  train.  In  the  evening  the  eight  brides- 
maids, with  their  respective  parents,  came,  but 
though  there  were  no  young  men,  they  all  danced 
till  midnight. 

The  dreaded  separation  was  fast  approaching. 
Those  were  days  in  which  people  of  all  classes 
seemed  to  give  freer  play  to  their  natural  emotions 
than  they  do  now,  and  the  actual  parting  at  Buck- 
ingham Palace  may  almost  be  described  as  agonis- 
ing. "I  think  it  will  kill  me  to  take  leave  of  dear 
Papa!"  were  the  words  of  the  Princess  to  her 
mother.  "A  dreadful  moment,  and  a  dreadful 
day,"  wrote  the  Queen.  "Such  sickness  came  over 
me,  real  heartache,  when  I  thought  of  our  dearest 
child  being  gone,  and  for  so  long" — all,  all  being 
over!  It  began  to  snow  before  Vicky  went,  and 
continued  to  do  so  without  intermission  all  day. 
At  times  I  could  be  quite  cheerful,  but  my  tears  be- 


68        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

gan  to  flow  afresh  frequently,  and  I  could  not  go 
near  Vicky's  corridor." 

Even  the  less  emotional  but  not  less  warm- 
hearted Princess  Mary  of  Cambridge  writes  in  her 
diary  of  February  2: 

"A  very  gloomy,  tearful  day!  At  eleven-thirty 
we  drove  to  the  palace  to  see  poor  dear  Vicky  off. 
It  was  our  intention  to  wait  downstairs;  but  we 
were  sent  for,  and  found  dear  Victoria  [the  Queen] 
surrounded  by  a  number  of  crying  relations  in  the 
Queen's  Closet.  It  was  a  sad,  a  trying  scene.  We 
all  accompanied  her  to  the  carriage,  and,  after 
bidding  her  adieu.  Mamma  and  I  hurried  to  one 
of  the  front  rooms  to  see  her  drive  up  the  Mall." 

There  exists  a  private  photograph,  or  rather  a 
daguerreotype,  taken  of  the  Princess  Royal  that 
morning,  her  face  unrecognisable,  swollen  with 
tears. 

It  may  be  imagined  how  delighted  the  populace 
were  when  they  saw  that,  though  it  was  snowing 
hard,  their  Princess  had  chosen  an  open  carriage 
for  her  drive  through  the  London  she  even  then 
loved  so  well  and  went  on  loving  to  the  very  end. 
The  route  taken  was  through  the  Mall,  Fleet 
Street,  Cheapside,  and  over  London  Bridge,  and 
in  spite  of  the  terrible  weather  enormous  crowds 
gathered  to  see  the  last  of  the  bride.  The  stalwart 
draymen  of  Barclay  and  Perkins's  brewery  shouted 
out  to  the  bridegroom  in  menacing  tones,  "Be  kind 
to  her  or  we'll  have  her  back!" 


MARRIAGE  69 

The  Princess  was  accompanied  by  her  father  and 
her  two  elder  brothers;  and  at  Gravesend,  where 
the  Royal  yacht,  the  Victoria  and  Albert,  was  wait- 
ing to  take  her  and  her  bridegroom  across  the 
Channel,  the  scene  was  again  most  affecting.  The 
Prince  Consort  was  deeply  moved  but  he  was  deter- 
mined to  appear  composed,  and  he  kept  his  look 
of  serenity.  Not  so  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
Prince  Alfred;  they  wept  openly,  and  their  ex- 
ample was  followed  by  many,  for  there  was  some- 
thing profoundly  moving  in  this  departure  of  the 
Daughter  of  England — as  Cobden  had  called  her 
— for  a  country  of  which  the  great  majority  of 
Englishmen  and  Englishwomen  at  that  time  knew 
little  or  nothing. 

Perhaps  the  general  feeling  among  the  educated 
classes  of  the  England  of  that  day  is  best  reflected 
in  a  leading  article  in  the  Times,  which  said : 

"We  only  trust  and  pray  that  the  policy  of  Eng- 
land and  of  Prussia  may  never  present  any  painful 
alternatives  to  the  Princess  now  about  to  leave  our 
shores;  that  she  will  never  be  called  on  to  forget 
the  land  of  her  birth,  education,  and  religion;  and 
that,  should  the  occasion  ever  occur,  she  may  have 
the  wisdom  to  render  what  is  due  both  to  her  new 
and  her  old  country.  There  is  no  European  State 
but  what  changes  and  is  still  susceptible  of  change, 
nor  is  this  change  wholly  by  any  internal  law  of 
development.  We  influence  one  another.  Eng- 
land, indeed,  has  ever  been  jealous  of  foreign  in- 


70        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

fluence,  and  she  would  be  the  last  to  repudiate  the 
honour  of  influencing  her  neighbours.  For  our 
part,  we  are  confident  enough  of  our  country  to 
think  an  English  Princess  a  gain  to  a  Prussian 
Court,  but  not  so  confident  to  deny  that  we  may 
be  mutually  benefited,  and  Europe  through  us,  by 
a  greater  cordiality  and  better  acquaintance  than 
has  hitherto  been  between  the  two  countries." 


CHAPTER  V 

EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE 

The  bridal  journey  to  Berlin  was  in  the  nature 
of  a  triumphal  progress,  and  it  was  well  that  the 
Prince  and  Princess  were  both  young  and  full  of 
healthy  vitality.  At  Brussels  they  were  present 
at  a  great  Court  ball  given  in  their  honour,  but 
early  the  next  morning  they  were  again  on  their 
route,  and  all  the  way  there  were  receptions,  ad- 
dresses of  congratulations,  &c.,  to  be  received  and 
answered. 

It  was  probably  at  Brussels  that  the  Princess 
received  a  touching  letter  from  her  father,  written 
on  the  day  after  her  departure  from  England :  — 

"My  heart  was  very  full  when  yesterday  you 
leaned  your  forehead  on  my  breast  to  give  free  vent 
to  your  tears.  I  am  not  of  a  demonstrative  nature, 
and  therefore  you  can  hardly  know  how  dear  you 
have  always  been  to  me,  and  what  a  void  you  have 
left  behind  in  my  heart:  yet  not  in  my  heart,  for 
there  assuredly  you  will  abide  henceforth,  as  till 
now  you  have  done,  but  in  my  daily  life,  which  is 
evermore  reminding  my  heart  of  your  absence." 

Three  days  later  Prince  Albert  again  wrote  to 
her: 

"Thank  God,  everything  apparently  goes  on  to 

71 


72        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

a  wish,  and  you  seem  to  gain  'golden  opinions'  in 
your  favour;  which  naturally  gives  us  extreme 
pleasure,  both  because  we  love  you,  and  because 
this  touches  our  parental  pride.  But  what  has 
given  us  most  pleasure  of  all  was  the  letter,  so  over- 
flowing with  affection,  which  you  wrote  while  yet 
on  board  the  yacht.  Poor  child !  well  did  I  feel  the 
bitterness  of  your  sorrow,  and  would  so  fain  have 
soothed  it.  But,  excepting  my  own  sorrow,  I  had 
nothing  to  give;  and  that  would  only  have  had  the 
effect  of  augmenting  yours." 

To  Stockmar,  whose  son.  Baron  Ernest  Stock- 
mar,  was  appointed  Treasurer  to  the  Princess 
Royal  on  her  marriage,  he  wrote : 

"Throughout  all  this  agitated,  serious  and  very 
trying  time,  the  good  child  has  behaved  quite  ad- 
mirably, and  to  the  mingled  admiration  and  sur- 
prise of  every  one.  She  was  so  natural,  so  child- 
like, so  dignified  and  firm  in  her  whole  bearing  and 
demeanour,  that  one  might  well  believe  in  a  higher 
inspiration.  I  shall  not  forget  that  your  son  has 
proved  himself  in  all  ways  extremely  useful,  and 
takes  and  holds  his  ground,  which,  among  the  Ber- 
liners,  is  no  easy  matter." 

The  progress  to  Berlin  was,  at  any  rate,  by  no 
means  dull;  it  was  marked  by  plenty  of  incident, 
sometimes  not  of  a  pleasant  nature.  For  instance, 
when  the  bridal  pair  were  entertained  at  a  great 
Court  banquet  at  Hanover,  whether  by  malice,  or 
more  probably  by  sheer  stupidity,  the  feast  was 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  73 

spread  on  the  very  gold  dinner-service  which  had 
been  a  subject  of  dispute  between  Queen  Victoria 
and  King  Ernest,  a  dispute  which  had  been  decided 
by  the  Enghsh  law  officers  of  the  Crown  in  favour 
of  Hanover.  The  Princess  Royal,  who  knew  all 
about  the  affair,  felt  deeply  hurt,  but  she  did  not 
allow  this  to  be  noticed  except  by  her  intimate 
entourage. 

In  Magdeburg  Cathedral  the  crowd  became  so 
obstreperous  in  their  eager  desire  to  see  the  Prin- 
cess that  shreds  of  her  gown,  a  dress  of  tartan  vel- 
vet, were  actually  torn  off  her  back. 

Just  before  Potsdam  was  reached,  the  famous 
Field-Marshal  Wrangel,  who  had  played  so  great 
a  part  in  the  Revolution  of  1848,  jumped  into  the 
train.  After  he  had  complimented  the  Royal  bride, 
he  sat  down  on  a  seat  on  which  had  been  placed  an 
enormous  apple-tart  which  had  just  been  presented 
to  the  Princess  at  Wittenberg,  a  town  noted  for 
its  pastry.  Fortunately  the  old  soldier  took  the 
accident  in  good  part,  and  joined  in  the  hearty 
laughter  which  accompanied  the  efforts  of  the 
Princess  and  her  ladies  to  clean  his  uniform. 

The  whole  of  the  Prussian  Royal  family  as- 
sembled at  Potsdam  to  greet  the  bride  and  bride- 
groom, who  made  their  State  entry  into  Berlin  on 
February  8.  It  was  a  fine  day,  but  the  cold  was 
of  an  intensity  never  before  experienced  by  the 
Princess.  Nevertheless,  she  and  her  ladies  were 
all  in  low  Court  dresses,  and,  by  her  express  wish. 


74        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  windows  of  the  State  carriages  were  kept  down, 
so  that  the  eager  populace  might  be  the  better  able 
to  see  inside. 

The  drive  lasted  two  hours  and  ended  at  the  Old 
Schloss,  where  the  Prince  and  Princess  found  once 
more  the  whole  of  the  Prussian  Royal  family  as- 
sembled, headed  by  the  then  King  and  his  Queen. 
As  the  Queen  embraced  the  bride,  she  observed 
coldly:  "Are  you  not  frozen?"  The  Princess  re- 
plied with  a  smile;  "I  have  only  one  warm  place, 
and  that  is  my  heart!" 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  on  that  night  of  the 
•*6tate  entry  into  Berlin,  when  every  house,  and 
especially  every  palace  and  embassy,  was  brilliantly 
illuminated,  the  English  Legation  alone  remained 
in  darkness.  This  was  simply  because  the  gas 
company  had  undertaken  to  do  more  than  it  could 
accomplish,  for  gas  had  never  been  used  for  public 
illumination  in  Berlin  before  that  night.  StiU,  the 
circumstance  was  long  remembered  by  the  more 
superstitious  of  the  Berliners. 

The  youthful  bride  made  a  very  favourable  im- 
pression on  those  who  saw  her  on  that  first  day 
in  Berlin.  Her  manner  was  singularly  quiet  and 
self-possessed,  and  she  found  a  kind  and  suitable 
word  to  say  to  everyone.  Yet,  even  so,  feeling 
ran  so  high  in  Prussian  society,  and  especially  at 
the  Court,  that  Lord  and  Lady  Bloomfield,  the 
then  English  Minister  and  his  wife,  made  a  point 
of  avoiding  the  Princess  Royal,  so  desirous  were 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  75 

they  of  giving  no  cause  of  oiFence  to  the  King  and 
Queen. 

Meanwhile,  the  loving  parents  in  London  were 
kept  husy  in  reading  the  accounts,  which  poured  in 
on  them  from  every  quarter,  of  their  daughter's 
reception  in  their  new  home.  Thus,  Queen  Vic- 
toria's sister,  the  Princess  of  Hohenlohe-Langen- 
burg,  writes  from  Berlin  on  February  17: 

"You  know  of  everything  that  is  going  on,  and 
how  much  she  [the  Princess  Royal]  is  admired, 
and  deserves  so  to  be.  The  enthusiasm  and  in- 
terest shown  are  beyond  everything.  Never  was 
a  Princess  in  this  country  received  as  she  is.  That 
shows  where  the  sympathies  turn  to,  certainly  not 
towards  the  North  Pole." 

This  was  perhaps  a  little  too  couleur  de  rose,  and 
when  Prince  Frederick  William  telegraphed  to  his 
parents-in-law,  "The  whole  Royal  family  is  en- 
chanted with  my  wife,"  Prince  Albert's  dry  com- 
ment, in  writing  to  his  daughter,  was  that  the  tele- 
graph must  have  been  amazed  at  the  message. 
Nor  did  the  anxious  father  fail  to  seize  the  oppor- 
tunity for  a  little  sermon.  In  this  same  letter, 
dated  February  11,  he  vn*ites  to  the  Princess: 

"You  have  now  entered  upon  your  new  home, 
and  been  received  and  welcomed  on  all  sides  with 
the  greatest  friendship  and  cordiality.  This  kindly 
and  trustful  advance  of  a  whole  nation  towards  an 
entire  stranger  must  have  kindled  and  confirmed 
within  you  the  determination  to  show  yourself  in 


76        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

every  way  worthy  of  such  feelings,  and  to  recipro- 
cate and  requite  them  by  the  steadfast  resolution 
to  dedicate  the  whole  energies  of  your  life  to  this 
people  of  your  new  home.  And  you  have  received 
from  Heaven  the  happy  task  of  effecting  this  ob- 
ject by  making  your  husband  truly  happy,  and  of 
doing  him  at  the  same  time  the  best  service,  by 
aiding  him  to  maintain  and  to  increase  the  love  of 
his  countrymen. 

"That  you  have  everywhere  made  so  favourable 
an  impression  has  given  intense  happiness  to  me 
as  a  father.  Let  me  express  my  fullest  admiration 
of  the  way  in  which,  possessed  exclusively  by  the 
duty  which  you  had  to  fulfil,  you  have  kept  down 
and  overcome  your  own  little  personal  troubles, 
perhaps  also  many  feelings  of  sorrow  not  yet 
healed.  This  is  the  way  to  success,  and  the  only 
way.  If  you  have  succeeded  in  winning  people's 
hearts  by  friendliness,  simphcity,  and  courtesy,  the 
secret  lay  in  this,  that  you  were  not  thinking  of 
yourself.  Hold  fast  this  mystic  power;  it  is  a 
spark  from  Heaven." 

Admirable  advice  in  a  sense,  but  unfortunately 
too  general  to  be  of  much  service  to  the  warm- 
hearted, impulsive  Princess,  before  whom  lay  so 
many  unsuspected  pitfalls.  Prince  Albert  be- 
lieved, as  he  had  said  to  his  son-in-law,  that  his 
daughter  possessed  "a  man's  head  and  a  child's 
heart,"  an  allusion  to  the  poet's  words,  "In  wit  a 
man,  simplicity  a  child."     But  Prussia  was  not 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  7T 

Coburg,  and  even  from  Coburg  Prince  Albert  had 
now  been  away  for  nearly  twenty  years.  He  does 
not  appear  at  all  to  have  appreciated  either  the 
situation  which  now  confronted  the  Princess  Royal, 
or  how  little  adapted  she  was  by  her  temperament 
and  her  training  to  meet  it. 

In  the  Princess  of  Prussia  (afterwards  the  Em- 
press Augusta)  her  English  daughter-in-law  ever 
had  a  true  friend  and  ally,  and  during  the  forty 
years  which  followed,  the  two  ladies  were  on  far 
better  terms  than  anyone  could  have  expected,  con- 
sidering how  entirely  different  had  been  their  up- 
bringing and  outlook  on  life. 

For  example.  Princess  Augusta  had  been  taught 
as  a  child  to  tenir  cercle  in  the  gardens  of  the  Palace 
at  Weimar — ^that  is  to  say,  she  had  to  make  the 
round  of  the  bushes  and  trees,  each  of  which  repre- 
sented for  the  moment  a  lady  or  gentlemen  of  the 
Court,  and  say  something  pleasant  and  suitable  to 
each!  In  this  curious  but  extremely  practical 
fashion  was  inculcated  one  of  the  most  fundamen- 
tally important  duties  of  Royal  personages,  and 
it  may  be  suggested  with  all  respect  that  the  future 
Empress  Frederick  would  have  benefited  if  she 
had  had  some  similar  training. 

The  Princess  who  was  to  become  Queen  of 
Prussia  and  the  first  German  Empress  had  been 
brought  up  at  Goethe's  knee.  She  belonged,  in 
an  intellectual  sense,  to  the  eighteenth  rather  than 
the  nineteenth  century.     She  knew  French  as  well 


78        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

as  she  knew  German — indeed,  it  is  said  that  she 
often  thought  in  French,  and  perhaps  her  chief 
friend,  at  the  time  of  her  son's  marriage  to  the 
Princess  Royal,  was  Monsieur  de  Bacourt,  the 
French  diplomatist  to  whom  the  Duchesse  de  Dino's 
diary-letters  were  for  the  most  part  addressed. 
Among  her  intimates  were  many  Catholics,  and 
for  many  years  it  was  believed  in  Berlin  that  she 
had  been  secretly  received  into  the  Roman  Church. 
As  a  young  woman  she  was  full  of  heart  and 
warmth  of  feeling,  but  she  soon  learnt,  what  her 
daughter-in-law  never  succeeded  in  mastering,  the 
wisdom  of  circumspection  and  the  painful  necessity 
for  prudence.  She  early  made  up  her  mind  to 
remain  on  the  whole  in  shadow.  While  never  con- 
ceahng  her  point  of  view  from  those  about  her,  she 
yet  never  took  any  public  part  in  the  affairs  of 
State. 

During  the  Crimean  War,  when  the  whole  of 
the  Prussian  Court  was  pro-Russian,  the  Princess 
of  Prussia  had  been  pro-English — a  fact  which 
naturally  endeared  her  to  Queen  Victoria,  but 
which  had  made  her  Prussian  relatives  very  sore 
and  angry.  When  the  Princess  Royal  arrived  in 
Berlin  as  the  bride  of  the  King  of  Prussia's  heir- 
presumptive,  the  Crimean  War  was  already  being 
forgotten.  Among  the  Liberals  there  was  what 
may  be  called  a  pro-English  party,  and  the  joyous 
simplicity  and  youthful  charm  of  the  Princess 
silenced  criticism,  at  any  rate  for  a  time. 


EAKLY  MARRIED  LIFE  79 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Princess  Royal 
had  left  a  young  Court.  At  the  time  of  her  mar- 
riage her  parents  were  still  young  people — she 
made  them  grandparents  when  they  were  only 
thirty-eight.  But  the  Court  in  which  she  now  be- 
came an  important  personage  was  composed  of 
middle-aged  men  and  women,  with  some  very  old 
people.  There  was  still  living  in  the  Court  circle 
a  lady  who  was  said  to  remember  Frederick  the 
Great.  This  was  the  Countess  Pauline  Neale,  who 
had  been  one  of  Queen  Louise's  ladies-in-waiting. 
She  could  recollect  with  vivid  intensity  every  detail 
and  episode  associated  with  Napoleon's  treatment 
of  the  King  and  Queen. 

Of  great  age,  too,  was  the  gigantic  Field-Mar- 
shal Wrangel,  who  had  actually  carried  the  colours 
of  his  regiment  at  the  battle  of  Leipzig. 

Another  interesting  personality  in  the  Princess 
Royal's  new  family  circle  was  her  husband's  aunt. 
Princess  Charles,  sister  of  the  Princess  of  Prussia, 
who  afterwards  became  the  grandmother  of  the 
Duchess  of  Connaught.  She  still  bore  traces  of 
the  wonderful  beauty  for  which  she  had  been  famed 
in  the  'twenties,  but  was,  of  course,  no  longer  a 
young  woman. 

Not  long  after  the  Princess  Royal's  arrival  in 
Berlin,  a  German  observer  wrote  to  the  Prince 
Consort:  "She  sees  more  clearly  and  more  cor- 
rectly than  many  a  man  of  commanding  intellect, 
because,  while  possessing  an  acute  mind  and  the 


80        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

purest  heart,  she  does  not  know  the  word  *prej- 
udice.' " 

Less  than  a  month  after  her  marriage,  on  Feb- 
ruary 17,  the  Prince  Consort  sent  his  daughter  a 
letter  full  of  wise  warning: 

"Your  festival  time,  if  not  your  honeymoon, 
comes  to  an  end  to-day;  and  on  this  I  take  leave 
to  congratulate  you,  unfeeling  though  it  may 
sound,  for  I  wish  you  the  necessary  time  and  tran- 
quillity to  digest  the  many  impressions  you  have 
received,  and  which  otherwise,  like  a  wild  revel,  first 
inflame,  and  then  stupefy,  leaving  a  dull  nerveless 
lassitude  behind.  Your  exertions,  and  the  de- 
mands which  have  been  made  upon  you,  have  been 
quite  immense;  you  have  done  your  best,  and  have 
won  the  hearts,  or  what  is  called  the  hearts,  of  all. 
In  the  nature  of  things  we  may  now  expect  a  little 
reaction.  The  public,  just  because  it  was  raptur- 
ous and  enthusiastic,  will  now  become  minutely 
critical  and  take  you  to  pieces  anatomically.  This 
is  to  be  kept  in  view,  although  it  need  cause  you  no 
uneasiness,  for  you  have  only  followed  your  natural 
bent,  and  have  made  no  external  demonstration 
which  did  not  answer  to  the  truth  of  your  inner 
nature.  It  is  only  the  man  who  presents  an  arti- 
ficial demeanour  to  the  world,  who  has  to  dread 
being  unmasked. 

"Your  place  is  that  of  your  husband's  wife,  and 
of  3^our  mother's  daughter.     You  will  desire  noth- 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  81 

ing  else,  but  you  will  also  forego  nothing  of  that 
which  you  owe  to  your  husband  and  to  your  mother. 
Ultimately  your  mind  will,  from  the  over-excite- 
ment, fall  back  to  a  little  lassitude  and  sadness. 
But  this  will  make  you  feel  a  craving  for  activity, 
and  you  have  much  to  do,  in  studying  your  new 
country,  its  tendencies  and  its  people,  and  in  over- 
looking your  household  as  a  good  housewife,  with 
punctuality,  method,  and  vigilant  care.  To  suc- 
cess in  the  affairs  of  life,  apportionment  of  time 
is  essential,  and  I  hope  you  will  make  this  your  first 
care,  so  that  you  may  always  have  some  time  over 
for  the  fulfilment  of  every  duty." 

Baron  Stockmar  had  also  been  watching  the  de- 
tails of  the  Princess's  reception  in  her  new  country 
with  anxious  interest.  He,  too,  saw  the  danger  of 
a  reaction,  and  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Prince  Con- 
sort, in  reply  to  which  the  father,  after  commend- 
ing the  Princess's  tact,  said: 

"The  enthusiasm  with  which  she  seems  to  have 
been  everywhere  received  exceeds  our  utmost  cal- 
culations and  hopes,  and  proves  that  the  people  ap- 
proved the  idea  of  this  alliance,  and  have  found 
Vicky  in  herself  answer  to  their  expectations.  It 
is  only  now,  indeed,  the  difficulties  of  her  life  will 
begin,  and  after  the  excitement  of  the  festivities 
a  certain  melancholy  wiU  come  over  the  poor  child, 
however  happy  she  may  feel  with  her  husband. 
With  marriage,  a  new  life  has  opened  for  her,  and 


82        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

you  would  have  marvelled  at  the  sudden  change  and 
development  which  even  here  became  at  once  ap- 
parent. 

"We,  that  is,  she  and  I,  have,  I  think,  remained, 
and  I  believe  will  remain,  the  same  to  one  another. 
She  continues  to  set  great  store  by  my  advice  and 
my  confidence ;  I  do  not  thrust  them  upon  her,  but 
I  am  always  ready  to  give  them.  During  this  time 
of  troubles  she  has  written  less  to  me,  and  com- 
municated the  details  of  her  life,  and  what  she  is 
doing,  more  to  her  mother.  I  had  arranged  this 
with  her,  but  I  hold  her  promise  to  impart  to  me 
faithfully  the  progress  of  her  inner  life,  and  on 
the  other  hand  have  given  her  mine,  to  take  a  con- 
stantly active  part  in  fostering  it.  You  may  be 
sure  I  will  not  fail  in  this,  as  I  see  in  it  merely  the 
fulfilment  of  a  sacred  duty. 

"What  you  say  about  an  early  visit  had  already 
been  running  in  my  head,  and  I  will  frankly  ex- 
plain what  we  think  on  this  subject.  Victoria  and 
I  are  both  desirous  to  have  a  meeting  with  the 
yoimg  couple,  somewhere  or  other  in  the  course  of 
the  year,  having  moreover  given  them  a  promise 
that  we  would.  This  could  only  be  in  the  autumn. 
A  rendezvous  on  the  Rhine — for  example  at  Co- 
blentz — would  probably  be  the  right  thing.  This 
does  not  exclude  a  flying  visit  by  myself  alone, 
which,  if  it  is  to  be  of  any  use,  must  be  paid  earlier 
in  the  year.  How  and  where  we  could  see  each 
other  I  have  naturally  weighed,  and  am  myself 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  83 

doubtful  whether  Berlin  is  the  appropriate  place 
for  me.  I  have  therefore  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  I  might  go  to  Coburg,  and  give  the  young 
people  a  rendezvous  there." 

The  Princess  Royal  spent  her  first  winter  in 
Berlin  in  the  Old  Schloss.  The  castle  had  not  been 
lived  in  for  a  considerable  time,  and  to  one  accus- 
tomed to  the  even  then  high  standard  of  English 
living  and  hygiene,  it  must  have  seemed  almost 
mediaeval  in  its  lack  of  comfort,  and  of  what  the 
Princess  had  been  brought  up  to  regard  as  the 
bare  necessities  of  life — light,  warmth,  and  plenty 
of  hot  water. 

The  young  couple  were  allotted  a  suite  of 
splendidly  decorated  but  very  dark  and  gloomy 
rooms ;  and  none  of  the  passages  or  staircases  were 
heated.  The  Princess,  who  had  always  been  en- 
couraged to  turn  her  quick  mind  to  practical  mat- 
ters, and  who  delighted  in  creating  and  in  making, 
found  her  way  blocked  at  every  turn  owing  to  the 
fact  that  nothing  could  be  done  in  the  Old  Schloss 
without  the  direct  permission  of  the  King.  Not 
only  was  Frederick  William  IV  in  a  very  bad  and 
mentally  peculiar  state  of  health,  but  to  him  and  to 
his  Queen  any  attempt  to  change  or  modify  any- 
thing in  the  ancient  pile  of  buildings  where  his  pred- 
ecessor had  lived  savoured  of  sacrilege.  To  give 
one  instance.  King  Frederick  William  III  had  died 
in  the  very  suite  of  rooms  allotted  to  the  Prince  and 
Princess,  and  his  children  had  piously  preserved 


84        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  "death-chamber,"  as  it  was  still  called,  in  exactly 
the  same  state  as  it  was  on  the  day  of  his  death. 
This  room  was  situated  next  to  the  Princess's  bou- 
doir, and  every  time  she  went  to  her  bedroom  or 
dressing-room  she  was  obliged  to  pass  through  it. 

The  Old  Schloss  was  widely  believed  to  be 
haunted,  not  only  by  the  "White  Lady"  but  by 
other  ghosts,  and  the  door  between  the  Princess 
Royal's  boudoir  and  the  "death-chamber"  would 
sometimes  open  by  itself.  One  winter  evening,  the 
Princess  and  one  of  her  ladies  were  sitting  together 
in  the  boudoir.  The  lady,  who  was  reading  aloud, 
raised  her  eyes  and  suddenly  saw  the  door  of  the 
death-chamber,  which  was  covered,  like  the  walls, 
with  blue  silk,  open  noiselessly,  as  if  pushed  by  an 
invisible  hand.  She  stopped  reading  abruptly. 
The  Princess  asked  nervously,  "What's  happened? 
Do  you  see  anything?"  The  lady  answered, 
"Nothing,  ma'am,"  and,  getting  up,  shut  the  door. 

But  it  would  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  Prin- 
cess allowed  the  ungraciousness  of  the  King  and 
the  material  discomforts  which  surrounded  her  at 
this  time  to  cloud  the  beginning  of  a  singularly 
happy  married  life.  She  threw  herself  with  eager 
zest  into  her  husband's  interests,  and  for  the  time 
she  seemed  completely  merged  in  him.  Having 
regard  to  the  mental  equipment  and  demands  of  the 
Princess,  it  is  obvious  that  she  found  in  her  husband 
great  intellectual  gifts.  The  theory  that  the 
Prince  was  wholly  influenced  by  his  wife,  who  took 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  85 

the  lead  in  all,  cannot  be  maintained.  He  was  nine 
years  older  than  the  Princess,  who  was  little  more 
than  a  child  when  they  married,  and  his  character 
and  outlook  were  formed  long  before.  His  uncle, 
Duke  Ernest,  testifies  on  the  contrary,  to  the  in- 
fluence which  the  Prince  exerted  over  his  wife. 

It  must,  however,  be  acknowledged  that  Prince 
Frederick  William,  especially  in  these  early  days, 
agreed  with  the  Princess  in  regarding  England  as 
a  perfect  country  with  a  perfect  constitution.  He 
was  deeply  grateful  to  her  for  having  left  an 
ideally  happy  home  to  become  his  wife,  and  his 
entire  devotion  was  shown  in  many  ways.  Indeed, 
the  only  thing  in  which  the  Prince  Frederick  Wil- 
liam of  these  days  seems  to  have  ever  withstood  the 
Princess  Royal  was  in  his  refusal  to  give  up  his 
solitary  evening  walk  in  the  streets  of  Berlin.  The 
Princess  used  to  go  to  bed  quite  early,  and  then  the 
Prince  would  go  out  and  walk  about  quite  unat- 
tended. 

Years  later,  in  reference  to  her  domestic  happi- 
ness, the  Empress  wrote  feelingly  to  a  friend: 
"The  peace  and  blessed  calm  that  I  ever  found  in 
my  home,  by  the  side  of  my  beloved  husband,  when 
powerful  influences  from  outside  were  first  distress- 
ing me,  are  blessings  which  I  cannot  describe." 

Some  of  the  conditions  of  the  Princess  Royal's 
new  life  were  undoubtedly  very  irksome  to  her. 
The  tone  of  the  Prussian  Court  in  matters,  not  only 
of  religion  and  politics,  but  also  of  etiquette,  was 


86        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

very  much  narrower  than  that  of  the  English  Court. 
She  seems  to  have  found  it  impossible  to  guard  her 
tongue,  to  conceal  her  convictions,  or  to  hold  aloof 
from  political  discussion.  At  "home,"  as  she  soon 
very  unwisely  began  to  call  England,  she  had  been 
used  to  say  everything  she  thought  from  childhood 
upwards,  sure  of  not  being  misunderstood,  and 
reticence  would  have  seemed  to  her  mean,  if  not 
absolutely  dishonest. 

But  it  is  difficult  to  say  when  the  Prussian  re- 
actionary party  first  became  aware  that  in  the  bride 
of  Prince  Frederick  William  they  had  a  determined 
and  a  brilhant  opponent.  It  must,  however,  have 
been  fairly  early,  for  it  is  on  record  that  during  that 
first  winter  in  Berlin  "the  very  approach  of  a  Tory 
or  a  reactionary  seemed  to  freeze  her  up." 

Nor  is  it  easy  to  see  how  much  the  Princess's 
father,  watching  anxiously  from  England,  knew  of 
this.  She  continued  with  unabated  enthusiasm 
those  historical  and  literary  studies  to  which  the 
Prince  Consort  had  accustomed  her,  and  she  wrote 
him  a  weekly  letter,  asking  his  advice  on  political 
questions.  She  wrote  to  her  mother  daily,  some- 
times twice  a  day,  but  it  was  her  father's  influence 
which  reaUy  coimted  with  her,  and  that  remained 
quite  unimpaired.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
he  attributed  whatever  seemed -to  annoy  and  dis- 
tress her  in  Prussian  public  life  to  the  still  para- 
mount influence  of  the  dying  King.  But  he  evi- 
dently did  not  at  any  time  realise  that,  though 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  87 

factious  persons  might  be  ready  enough  to  use  her 
in  their  own  interests,  no  one  in  Prussia  really 
wanted  to  see  a  Princess  dabbling  in  politics  at  all. 
Thus,  we  find  the  Prince  writing  to  Stockmar  in 
March  1858: 

"From  Berlin  the  tenor  of  the  news  continues 
excellent.  Vicky  appears  to  go  on  pleasing,  and 
being  pleased.  She  is  an  extremely  fortunate, 
animating,  and  tranquillising  element  in  that  region 
of  conflict  and  indecision." 

And  again: 

"Brunnow  had  reckoned  upon  Moustier  from 
Berlin,  whom  he  would  have  had  in  his  pocket,  and 
through  him  Walewski.  Now  he  gets  the  Duke 
of  Malakoff !  He  has  not  yet  been  able  to  realise 
the  position,  and  is  by  way  of  being  extremely  con- 
fidential; it  is  he  alone  who  has  made  Vicky's  mar- 
riage popular  in  Berlin,  where  it  was  at  first  very 
unpopular,  and  he  weeps  tears  of  emotion  when 
he  speaks  of  her!" 

To  the  Princess  herself  he  wrote  also  in  March: 

"You  seem  to  have  taken  up  your  position  with 
much  tact.  The  bandage  has  been  torn  from  your 
eyes  all  at  once  as  regards  all  the  greatest  mysteries 
of  life,  and  you  stand  not  only  of  a  sudden  before 
them,  but  are  called  upon  to  deal  with  them,  and 
that  too  on  the  spur  of  the  moment.  *Oh!  It  is 
indeed  most  hard  to  be  a  man,'  was  the  constant 
cry  of  the  old  Wiirtemberg  Minister,  von  Wangen- 
heim,  and  he  was  right!" 


88        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

The  Prince  was  generally  philosophising,  but 
even  so  the  following,  written  a  few  days  later, 
seems  an  extraordinary  letter  for  any  father  to 
write  to  a  girl  not  much  over  seventeen: 

"That  you  should  sometimes  be  oppressed  by 
home-sickness  is  most  natural.  This  f  eehng,  which 
I  know  right  well,  will  be  sure  to  increase  with  the 
sadness  which  the  reviving  spring,  and  the  quicken- 
ing of  all  nature  that  comes  with  it,  always  develop 
in  the  heart.  It  is  a  painful  yearning,  which  may 
exist  quite  independently  of,  and  simultaneously 
with,  complete  contentment  and  complete  happi- 
ness. I  explain  this  hard-to-be-comprehended 
mental  phenomenon  thus.  The  identity  of  the  in- 
dividual is,  so  to  speak,  interrupted ;  and  a  kind  of 
Dualism  springs  up  by  reason  of  this,  that  the  / 
which  has  heen,  with  all  its  impressions,  remem- 
brances, experiences,  feelings,  which  were  also  those 
of  youth,  is  attached  to  a  particular  spot,  with  its 
local  and  personal  associations,  and  appears  to  what 
may  be  called  the  new  I  like  a  vestment  of  the  soul 
which  has  been  lost,  from  which  nevertheless  the 
new  I  cannot  disconnect  itself,  because  its  identity 
is  in  fact  continuous.  Hence  the  painful  struggle, 
I  might  almost  say  the  spasm,  of  the  soul." 

To  the  faithful  Stockmar  the  Prince  confided 
his  belief: 

"As  to  Vicky,  unquestionably  she  wiU  turn  out 
a  very  distinguished  character,  whom  Prussia  will 
have  cause  to  bless." 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  89 

The  Prince's  cherished  scheme  of  a  visit  to  Co- 
burg  began  to  take  shape,  and  he  writes : 

"My  whole  stay  in  Coburg  can  only  be  for  six 
days.  To  see  you  and  Fritz  together  in  a  quiet 
homely  way  without  visits  of  ceremony,  &c. — I  dare 
not  picture  it  to  myself  too  strongly.  Talk  it  over 
with  Fritz,  and  let  me  know  if  I  can  count  on  you, 
but  do  not  let  the  plan  get  wind,  otherwise  people 
will  be  paying  us  visits,  and  our  meeting  will  lose 
its  pleasant  private  character." 

Another  letter,  dated  April  28,  is  interesting  as 
showing  that  the  Prince  was  beginning  to  perceive 
some  of  the  difficulties  in  his  daughter's  path: 

"What  you  are  now  living  through,  observing, 
and  doing,  are  the  most  important  experiences,  im- 
pressions and  acts  of  your  life,  for  they  are  the  first 
of  a  life  independent  and  responsible  to  itself. 
That  outside  of  and  in  close  proximity  to  your  true 
and  tranquillising  happiness  with  dear  Fritz  your 
path  of  life  is  not  wholly  smooth,  I  regard  as  a 
most  fortunate  circumstance  for  you,  inasmuch  as 
it  forces  you  to  exercise  and  strengthen  the  powers 
of  your  mind." 

Nothing  that  concerned  her  but  was  of  moment 
to  her  father: 

"I  am  delighted  to  see  by  your  letter  that  you 
deliberate  gravely  upon  your  budget,  and  I  shall 
be  most  happy  to  look  through  it,  if  you  send  it  to 
me ;  this  is  the  onh^  way  to  have  a  clear  idea  to  one's 
self  of  what  one  has,  spends,  and  ought  to  spend. 


90        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

As  this  is  a  business  of  which  I  have  had  long  and 
'frequent  experience,  I  will  give  you  one  rule  for 
your  guidance  in  it,  namely,  to  set  apart  a  consider- 
able balance  pour  Vimprevu.  This  gentleman  is 
the  costliest  of  guests  in  life,  and  we  shall  look  very 
blank  if  we  have  nothing  to  set  before  him." 

During  the  first  summer  of  their  married  life,  the 
Prince  and  Princess  set  up  quite  a  modest  estab- 
lishment at  the  Castle  of  Babelsberg,  and  this  made 
the  Princess  very  happy. 

Seated  on  a  declivity  of  a  richly  wooded  hill, 
about  three  miles  from  Potsdam,  and  looking  down 
upon  a  fine  expanse  of  water,  the  little  Castle  of 
Babelsberg  commands  a  charming  view  of  the  sur- 
rounding country.  "Everything  there,"  wrote 
Queen  Victoria  on  her  first  visit,  "is  very  small,  a 
Gothic  bijou  J  full  of  furniture,  and  flowers  (creep- 
ers), which  they  arrange  very  prettily  round 
screens,  and  lamps,  and  pictures.  There  are  many 
irregular  turrets  and  towers  and  steps." 

It  was  at  Babelsberg  that  the  Princess  Royal 
began  to  try  and  see  something  of  the  intellectual 
and  artistic  world  of  Berhn.  Neither  the  husband 
nor  the  wife  was  under  the  dominion  of  the  class 
and  caste  prejudices  which  even  now  are  so  as- 
tonishing a  feature  of  German  social  life,  and  which 
were  then  even  more  powerful  and  far-reaching. 
That  the  Prince  and  Princess  should  appear  actu- 
ally to  enjoy  the  society  of  mere  painters  and 
writers  and  scientists,  whether  they  occupied  any 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  91 

official  positions  or  not,  seemed  extraordinary  and 
highly  improper  to  the  whole  bureaucratic  element 
of  Berlin,  and  must,  we  can  well  imagine,  have 
seriously  offended  the  Prince's  father. 

It  is  easy  to  be  wise  after  the  event.  No  one 
now  can  help  seeing  that  it  would  have  been  the 
truest  wisdom  for  the  young  Princess  to  have 
rigidly  suppressed  her  natural  tastes  and  intellec- 
tual interests,  and  to  have  led  a  life  of  the  narrowly 
conventional  character  which  Prussian  princesses 
were  expected  to  lead.  But  she  was  incapable  of 
such  self-suppression,  which  would  have  seemed  to 
her  deceitful,  and  the  mild  cautions  and  hints  at 
prudence  in  her  father's  letters  were  pathetically 
inadequate  to  the  needs  of  her  critical  position. 
She  was  herself  still  quite  unaware  of  how  closely 
she  was  being  watched  and  criticised.  "I  am  very 
happy,"  she  told  a  guest  at  one  of  the  Court  recep- 
tions, "and  I  am  intensely  proud  of  belonging  to 
this  country." 

The  more  the  Princess's  social  preferences 
aroused  the  suspicion  and  indignation  of  the  Court 
world,  the  more  popular  she  became  with  the 
"intellectuals,"  unfortunately  not  a  profitable  ex- 
change for  her  as  she  was  then  situated.  We  be- 
come aware  of  this  by  a  passage  in  the  Reminis- 
cences of  Professor  Schellbach,  who  had  been 
mathematical  tutor  to  Prince  Frederick  William. 
He  writes: 

"The  first  words  which  the  Princess  addressed  to 


92        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

me  with  the  greatest  kindness  were,  'I  love  mathe- 
matics, physics,  and  chemistry.'  I  was  much 
pleased,  for  I  saw  that  the  Prince  must  have  given 
her  a  pleasant  account  of  me.  Under  the  direction 
of  her  highly  cultivated  father,  who  had  himself 
studied  it.  Princess  Victoria  had  become  acquainted 
with  natural  science,  and  had  even  received  her 
first  teaching  from  such  famous  men  as  Faraday 
and  Hoifman.  Our  beloved  Princess  soon  re- 
vealed her  love  for  art  and  science,  as  well  as  her 
pleasure  in  setting  problems  of  her  own.  Her 
Royal  Highness  at  first  tried  to  go  on  with  her 
studies  in  physics  and  mathematics  under  my  di- 
rection, but  soon  her  artistic  work  took  up  the  re- 
mainder of  time  which  the  requirements  of  Court 
life  left  to  her." 

Early  in  June  Prince  Albert  carried  out  his  plan 
of  visiting  his  daughter  and  son-in-law,  but  it  was 
at  Babelsberg,  not  at  Coburg,  as  he  had  hoped. 
He  was  able  to  report  to  Queen  Victoria:  "The  re- 
lation between  the  young  people  is  all  that  can  be 
desired.  I  have  had  long  talks  with  them  both, 
singly  and  together,  which  gave  me  the  greatest 
satisfaction." 

Prince  Albert  was,  however,  shocked  to  find  the 
King  of  Prussia  in  a  terrible  state : 

"The  King  looks  frightfully  ill;  he  was  very 
cordial  and  friendly,  and  for  the  half  hour  he 
stayed  with  us,  did  not  once  get  confused,  but  com- 
plained greatly  about  his  state  of  health.     He  is 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  93 

thin  and  fallen  away  over  his  whole  body,  with  a 
large  stomach,  his  face  grown  quite  smaU.  He 
made  many  attempts  at  joking  in  the  old  way,  but 
with  a  voice  quite  broken,  and  features  full  of  pain. 
'Wenn  ich  einmal  fort  hin,  wieder  fort  bin/  he 
said,  grasping  his  forehead  and  striking  it,  *then  the 
Queen  must  pay  us  a  visit  here,  it  will  make  me  so 
happy.'  What  he  meant  was,  'Wenn  ich  wieder 
wohl  bin/  *It  is  so  tedious,'  he  murmured;  thus  it 
is  plainly  to  be  seen  that  he  has  not  quite  given  up 
all  thought  of  getting  better.  The  Prince's  whole 
aim  is  to  be  serviceable  to  his  brother.  He  stiU 
walks  very  lame,  but  looks  well.  I  kept  quietly  in 
the  house  all  day  with  Vicky,  who  is  very  sensible 
and  good." 

The  Princess  had  special  reasons  for  being  "sen- 
sible" at  this  time,  for,  to  the  great  joy  of  the 
Prussian  Royal  family,  she  was  enceinte. 

In  August  Queen  Victoria  and  the  Prince  Con- 
sort paid  a  visit  of  some  length  to  their  daughter. 
The  Queen  herself  describes  the  visit  as  "quite 
private  and  unofficial,"  although  she  carried  in  her 
train  not  only  Lord  Malmesbury,  the  Foreign  Sec- 
retary in  Lord  Derby's  Government  (which  had 
been  formed  in  February),  but  also  Lord  Claren- 
don, his  predecessor,  and  Lord  Granville,  who  had 
been  Lord  President  of  the  Council  in  Palmerston's 
Government. 

Prince  Albert,  at  any  rate,  did  not  neglect  the 
opportunity   of   studying  the  political   situation. 


M        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

He  wrote  to  Stockmar  a  letter  highly  approving 
the  Prince  of  Prussia's  political  views,  while  his  son- 
in-law  he  described  as  firm  in  his  constitutional 
principles  and  despising  the  Manteuffel  Ministry, 
the  members  of  which  he  met  with  obvious  coolness. 

The  Berliners  gave  a  hearty  reception  to  Queen 
Victoria  and  Prince  Albert,  and  the  Queen  de- 
clared to  the  Burgomaster  of  Berlin  that  she  felt 
exceedingly  happy  there,  because  she  had  realised 
with  what  love  and  devotion  everyone  was  attached 
to  the  Royal  house  and  to  her  daughter. 

She  was  delighted  with  old  Wrangel,  whom  she 
calls  a  great  character.  "He  was  full  of  Vicky  and 
the  marriage,  and  said  she  was  an  angel."  There 
was  a  great  deal  of  sight-seeing,  mitigated  by 
charming  little  gemuthlich  family  dinners,  and  a 
grand  review  at  Potsdam. 

Prince  Albert's  birthday  occurred  during  the 
visit,  and  one  of  the  Queen's  presents  to  him  was 
"a  paper-weight  of  Balmoral  granite  and  deer's 
teeth  designed  by  Vicky."  "Vicky  gave  her  por- 
trait, a  small  oil  one  by  Hartmann,  very  like  though 
not  flattered,  and  a  drawing  by  herself.  There 
were  two  birthday  cakes.  Vicky  had  ordered  one 
with  as  many  lights  as  Albert  numbered  years, 
which  is  the  Prussian  custom." 

Her  Majesty  notes  with  pleasure  the  arrival  of 
"our  dear,  excellent  old  friend  Stockmar,"  whose 
presence,  however,  by  no  means  gave  universal 
satisfaction.     Indeed,  Sir  Theodore  Martin  says 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  95 

frankly  that,  although  his  visit  was  due  solely  to 
his  desire  to  meet  the  Queen  and  Prince  Consort, 
it  was  viewed  with  rancorous  suspicion  by  the  aris- 
tocratic party,  who  held  in  abhorrence  the  man 
whom  they  knew  to  be  the  great  advocate  for  the 
establishment  of  constitutional  government  in 
Germam^  He  was  even  accused  of  actively  in- 
triguing for  the  downfall  of  the  Manteuffel  Ad- 
ministration, having,  it  was  said,  "brought  in  his 
pocket,  all  cut  and  dry  from  England,  the  Ministry 
of  the  new  era." 

Stockmar's  views  of  what  was  needful  to  raise 
Germany  to  her  proper  place  among  the  nations 
were  unchanged,  but  age  and  infirmity  had  for 
some  time  made  him  a  mere  looker-on.  Neverthe- 
less, it  is  probable  that  neither  the  Queen  nor  Prince 
Albert  in  the  least  realised  how  inadvisable,  in  the 
interests  of  the  Princess  Royal,  was  the  old  man's 
visit. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  thought  that  the  Prus- 
sians were  indifferent  to  the  Princess  Royal's  sin- 
gular personal  charm.  We  have  a  most  interesting 
glimpse  of  this  in  a  long  letter  written  to  Queen 
Victoria  by  the  beautiful  and  brilliant  Duchess  of 
Manchester,  herself  a  Hanoverian  by  birth,  who 
afterwards  married  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  and 
for  many  years  held  a  remarkable  position  in  Eng- 
lish society. 

The  Duchess  relates  how  well  the  Princess  Royal 
was  looking  during  the  manoeuvres  on  the  Rhine, 


96        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

and  how  much  she  seemed  to  be  beloved,  not  only 
by  all  those  who  knew  her,  but  also  by  those  who 
had  only  seen  and  heard  of  her. 

"The  English  could  not  help  feeling  proud  of 
the  way  the  Princess  Royal  was  spoken  of,  and 
the  high  esteem  she  is  held  in.  For  one  so  young 
it  is  a  most  flattering  position,  and  certainly,  as 
the  Princess's  charm  of  manner  and  her  kind  un- 
aff'ected  words  had  in  that  short  time  w^on  her  the 
hearts  of  all  the  officers  and  strangers  present,  one 
was  not  astonished  at  the  praise  the  Prussians 
themselves  bestow  on  her  Roj^al  Highness.  The 
Prussian  Royal  Family  is  so  large,  and  their  opin- 
ions politically  and  socially  sometimes  so  different, 
that  it  must  have  been  very  difficult  indeed  at  first 
for  the  Princess  Royal,  and  people  therefore  can- 
not praise  enough  the  high  principles,  great  discre- 
tion, sound  judgment,  and  cleverness  her  Royal 
Highness  has  invariably  displayed." 

And  the  Duchess  adds,  on  the  authority  of  Field 
Marshal  Wrangel,  that  the  soldiers  were  particu- 
larly delighted  to  see  the  Princess  on  horseback  and 
without  a  veil. 

The  Royal  visit  to  Babelsberg  came  to  an  end 
all  too  soon,  and  the  leave-taking  was  tearful  and 
emotional  in  the  extreme.  Queen  Victoria  wrote 
with  natural  feeling,  "All  would  be  comparatively 
easy,  were  it  not  for  the  one  thought  that  I  cannot 
be  with  her  at  the  very  critical  moment  when  every 
other  mother  goes  to  her  child  I" 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  97 

In  October  of  that  first  year  of  the  Princess 
Royal's  married  life,  her  father-in-law  became 
permanent  Regent,  owing  to  the  continued  mental 
incapacity  of  King  Frederick  William  IV.  This 
filled  the  young  Princess  with  intense  satisfaction, 
which  was  increased  when  the  new  Prince  Regent 
declared  it  to  be  his  intention  strictly  to  adhere  to 
the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  of  1850. 
The  great  bulk  of  the  nation  rallied  instantly  round 
him,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  gulf  between  the  House 
of  HohenzoUern  and  the  people  of  Prussia  had  been 
suddenly  bridged.  The  Manteuffel  Ministry  fell 
in  the  following  month,  a  general  election  produced 
an  enormous  Liberal  majority,  and  the  hopes  of  the 
Constitutionalists  ran  high.  The  Manteuffel  Min- 
istry was  succeeded  by  one  of  which  Prince  Charles 
Anthony  of  HohenzoUern  was  the  President. 
From  this  time  forward  Prince  Frederick  William 
regularly  attended  the  meetings  of  the  Ministry, 
and  Privy  Councillor  Brunnemann  was  assigned 
to  him  as  a  kind  of  secretary  and  channel  of  com- 
munication on  State  affairs. 

The  Princess  Royal  imprudently  expressed  to 
a  gentleman  of  the  Court  her  satisfaction  at  the 
change  in  the  political  situation,  and  her  words, 
being  repeated  and  exaggerated,  gave  great  offence 
to  the  Conservative  party,  which  was  also  the  party 
of  the  King.  The  Princess's  satisfaction  was  of 
course  shared  by  her  father,  who  wrote  to  the  sym- 
pathetic Stockmar  a  letter  showing  no  prevision  of 


98        THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

that  great  rock  of  Army  administration  on  which 
these  high  hopes  were  destined  to  be  wrecked : 

"The  Regency  seems  now  to  have  been  secured 
for  the  Prince.  We  have  only  news  of  this  at 
present  by  telegrams  from  our  children,  but  are 
greatly  delighted  at  this  first  step  towards  the 
reduction  to  order  of  a  miserable  chaos.  Will  the 
Prince  have  the  courage  to  surround  himself  with 
honourable  and  patriotic  men?  That  is  the  ques- 
tion, and  what  shape  will  the  new  Chamber  take, 
and  what  will  its  influence  on  him  be?" 

On  November  20,  1858,  Prince  and  Princess 
Frederick  William  moved  into  the  palace  in  Unter 
den  Linden  which  was  henceforth  to  be  their  resi- 
dence in  Berlin ;  and  on  the  following  day,  the  Prin- 
cess's eighteenth  birthday,  there  was  a  kind  of 
dedicatorj'^  service  in  the  palace  chapel,  which  was 
attended  by  all  the  members  of  the  Royal  House. 

This  palace  had  been  the  scene  of  the  happy 
life  of  the  Prince's  grandfather.  King  Frederick 
William  III,  and  of  Queen  Louise.  The  intimate 
and  beautiful  family  life  that  had  filled  these  rooms 
was  the  best  of  omens  for  the  young  pair,  and  the 
Princess  Royal  was  delighted  with  her  new  home. 
But  the  palace  required  to  be  brought  up  to  modern 
standards  of  comfort,  and  it  was  very  difficult  to 
have  the  alterations  approved  by  the  moody  and 
violent  King.  What  he  allowed  on  one  day  he  took 
back  with  hasty  blame  on  the  morrow.  At  last 
Prince  Frederick  William  obtained  the  Royal  as- 


HER   ROYAL   HIGHNESS 

VICTORIA,  PRINCESS  ROYAL 

1856 


EARLY  MARRIED  LIFE  99 

sent  to  those  alterations  which  were  absolutely  ur- 
gent, together  with  a  grant  of  350,000  thalers. 
Among  other  improvements  was  added  an  eight- 
cornered  "Gedenkhalle"  or  "Memory-Hall,"  in 
which  were  placed  the  numerous  wedding  presents 
of  the  young  pair,  and  to  these,  from  time  to  time, 
were  added  other  rare  and  beautiful  objects. 


CHAPTER  VI 

■  BIETH  OF  PEINCE  WILLIAM 

On  January  27,  1859,  Berlin  was  on  the  tip-toe 
of  expectation.  The  custom  is  that  101  guns  an- 
nounce the  birth  of  a  Prince,  and  only  twenty-one 
that  of  a  Princess,  and  as  in  Prussia  the  Salic  Law 
stUl  obtains,  it  may  easily  be  imagined  with  what 
anxiety  the  Berliners  counted  the  successive  dis- 
charges. There  was  indeed  no  need  to  wait  for  the 
whole  tale  of  the  101  guns,  for  the  firing  of  the 
twenty-second  was  enough  to  spread  the  glad  news. 

The  story  goes  that  when  old  Field-Marshal 
Wrangel,  "Papa  Wrangel"  as  the  Berliners  affec- 
tionately called  him,  left  the  palace,  the  populace 
crowded  round  him  and  demanded  to  know  what 
he  could  tell  them.  "Children,"  he  answered,  "all 
is  well!  It  is  as  fine  and  sturdy  a  recruit  as  one 
could  wish!" 

It  soon  became  known,  however,  that  all  had  not 
gone  well  with  the  young  mother  and  her  child. 
There  had  been  one  of  those  unfortunate  mishaps, 
the  exact  truth  of  which  it  is  always  so  difficult  to 
disentangle,  but  the  following  account,  we  believe, 
represents  what  actually  happened : 

It  had  been  Queen  Victoria's  wish  that  the  Prin- 
cess should  be  attended  in  her  confinement  by  Dr. 
Martin,  her  English  doctor,  as  well  as  the  German 

100 


BIRTH  OF  PRINCE  WILLIAM    101 

Court  physicians.  About  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning  of  January  27,  one  of  the  latter  wrote  to 
his  English  colleague,  asking  him  to  come  at  once 
to  the  Palace.  But  the  servant  to  whom  the  letter 
was  entrusted,  instead  of  taking  it  to  Dr.  Martin's 
house,  put  it  in  the  post,  and  it  never  reached  him 
till  the  afternoon.  To  that  fact  the  Princess 
Royal's  friends  always  attributed  the  circumstances 
which  resulted  in  the  weakness  of  the  infant's  left 
arm.  Be  that  as  it  may,  both  mother  and  baby 
were  for  a  time  in  imminent  danger.  No  anaes- 
thetic was  administered,  and  the  Princess  with  char- 
acteristic courage  looked  up  to  her  husband,  who 
held  her  in  his  arms  the  whole  time,  and  asked  him 
to  forgive  her  for  being  impatient.  None  of  those 
about  her  thought  her  strength  would  hold  out,  and 
one  of  the  German  doctors  actually  said  in  her  pres- 
ence that  he  thought  she  would  die,  and  her  baby 
too.  But  at  last  her  ordeal  came  to  an  end,  and  to 
her  intense  joy  she  was  told  that  she  had  given  birth 
to  a  fine  healthy  boy. 

The  news  of  the  birth  of  their  first  grandchild 
was  quickly  flashed  to  the  anxious  parents  at  Wind- 
sor. "A  boy,"  ran  the  telegram,  and  Queen  Vic- 
toria characteristically  replied,  "Is  it  a  fine  boy?" 
But  it  was  not  till  the  following  day,  so  Prince 
Albert  told  Stockmar,  that  the  courier  brought  "our 
first  information  of  the  severe  suffering  which  poor 
Vicky  had  undergone,  and  of  the  great  danger  in 
which  the  child's  life  had  hovered  for  a  time."     To 


LIBRARY 
iiifrnciTv  nc  f!&lirnRNIA 


102      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

King  Leopold  the  Prince  wrote,  "The  danger  for 
the  child  and  the  sufferings  for  the  mother  were 
serious.  Poor  Fritz  and  the  Prince  and  Princess 
must  have  undergone  terrible  anxiety,  as  they  had 
no  hope  of  the  birth  of  a  living  child,  and  their  joy 
over  a  strong,  healthy  boy  is  therefore  all  the 
greater." 

On  the  evening  of  the  baby's  birth,  the  Prince 
Regent,  also  a  grandfather  for  the  first  time,  held 
a  reception  of  which  we  have  a  vivid  description 
from  the  pen  of  the  dramatist,  Gustav  zu  Putlitz, 
then  a  member  of  the  Prussian  Landtag,  and  after- 
wards chamberlain  to  Princess  Frederick  William. 
He  says : 

"It  was  like  a  great  family  festival.  Everyone 
hurried  there  with  congratulations,  and  when  the 
young  father,  beaming  with  happiness,  appeared, 
the  rejoicings  increased.  This  delight  is  shared  by 
all  classes  of  society,  and  is  a  testimony  to  the  extent 
of  the  popularity  of  the  Prince  and  Princess." 

Prince  Frederick  William  received  on  January 
29  the  congratulations  of  the  Prussian  Chambers, 
to  which  he  made  the  following  reply : 

"I  thank  you  very  heartily  for  the  interest  you 
have  shown  in  the  joyful  event,  which  is  of  such 
consequence  to  my  family  and  to  the  country.  If 
God  should  preserve  my  son's  life,  it  shall  be  my 
chief  endeavour  to  bring  him  up  in  the  opinions 
and  sentiments  which  bind  me  to  the  Fatherland. 
It  is  nearly  a  year  to-day  since  I  told  you  how 


BIRTH  OF  PRINCE  WILLIAM    103 

deeply  moved  I  was  by  the  universal  sympathy 
which  was  exhibited  towards  me,  as  a  young  mar- 
ried man,  by  the  country  as  a  whole.  This  sym- 
pathy it  was  which  made  the  Princess,  my  wife, 
who  had  left  her  home  to  come  to  a  new  Father- 
land, realise  those  ties  of  affection  which  have  now, 
owing  to  the  birth  of  this  son,  become  unbreakable. 
May  God  therefore  bless  our  efforts  to  bring  up 
our  son  to  be  worthy  of  the  love  which  has  been  thus 
early  manifested  towards  him.  The  Princess,  to 
whom  I  was  able  to  communicate  your  intention, 
desires  me  to  express  her  most  sincere  thanks." 

The  christening  was  fixed  for  March  5,  but 
neither  of  the  parents  of  the  Princess  could  be 
present.  "I  don't  think  I  ever  felt  so  bitterly  dis- 
appointed," wrote  the  Queen  to  Uncle  Leopold. 
"It  almost  breaks  my  heart.  And  then  it  is  an  oc- 
casion so  gratifying  to  both  nations  and  brings 
them  so  much  together  that  it  is  peculiarly  mortify- 
ing." However,  the  Queen  consoled  herself  by  do- 
ing all  she  could  to  mark  the  importance  of  the 
occasion.  She  sent  a  formal  mission  to  represent 
her  and  the  Prince  Consort  at  the  christening,  con- 
sisting of  Lord  Raglan,  the  son  of  the  victor  of  the 
Alma,  Inkerman,  and  Balaclava,  and  Captain 
(afterwards  Lord)  de  Ros,  equerry  to  Prince  Al- 
bert. They  were  both  old  friends  of  the  Princess, 
to  whom  her  father  wrote: 

*T  was  certain  that  the  presence  of  Lord  Raglan 
and   Captain  de  Ros   would  give  you  pleasure. 


104      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Ours  will  come  when  they  return,  and  we  can  put 
questions  to  them.  My  first  will  be:  Has  the 
Princess  gone  out  and  does  she  begin  to  enjoy  the 
air,  to  which  alone  she  can  look  for  regaining 
strength  and  health?  Or  is  she  in  the  way  to  grow 
weak  and  watery  by  being  baked  like  a  bit  of  pastry 
in  hot  rooms?  My  second:  Is  she  grown?  I  will 
spare  you  my  others. 

"Your  description  of  the  Prince's  kindness  and 
loving  sympathy  for  you  makes  me  very  happy. 
I  love  him  dearly,  and  respect  and  value  him,  and 
I  am  glad  too,  for  his  sake,  that  in  you  and  my 
little  grandchild  he  has  found  ties  of  family  happi- 
ness which  cannot  fail  to  give  him  those  domestic 
tastes,  in  which  alone  in  the  long  run  life's  true  con- 
tentment is  to  be  found." 

The  baby  Prince  was  duly  christened  on  March 
5,  when  he  received  the  names  of  Frederick  William 
Victor  Albert,  and  on  the  following  day  his  parents 
issued  a  touching  expression  of  their  gratitude  for 
the  sympathy  and  congratulations  they  had  received 
from  the  public.  In  it  they  pledged  themselves 
afresh  to  bring  up  their  son,  with  the  help  of  God, 
to  the  honour  and  service  of  the  Fatherland. 

After  the  special  envoys  had  returned  from 
Berlin,  the  Prince  writes  to  his  daughter  a  letter 
on  the  duties  of  motherhood,  which  was  decidedly 
candid  for  those  rather  prudish  days: 

"Lord  Raglan's  and  Captain  de  Ros's  news  of 
you  have  given  me  great  pleasm'e.     But  I  gather 


BIRTH  OF  PRINCE  WILLIAM    105 

from  them  that  you  look  rather  languid  and  ex- 
hausted. Some  sea  air  would  be  the  right  thing 
for  you;  it  is  what  does  all  newly-made  mothers 
the  most  good  when  their  ^campaign  is  over/  I 
am,  however,  delighted  to  hear  you  have  begun  to 
get  into  the  air.  Now  pass  on  as  soon  as  possible 
to  cold  washing,  shower  baths,  &c.,  so  as  to  brace 
the  system  again,  and  to  restore  elasticity  to  the 
nerves  and  muscles. 

"You  are  now  eighteen  years  old,  and  you  will 
hold  your  own  against  many  a  buffet  in  life;  still, 
you  wiU  encounter  many  for  which  you  were  not 
prepared  and  which  you  would  fain  have  been 
spared.  You  must  arm  yourself  against  these,  like 
Austria  against  the  chance  of  war,  otherwise  you 
will  break  down  and  drop  into  a  sickly  state,  which 
would  be  disastrous  to  yourself,  and  inflict  a  fright- 
ful burden  upon  poor  Fritz  for  life ;  besides  which, 
it  would  unfit  you  for  fulfilling  all  the  duties  of  your 
station. 

"In  reference  to  having  children,  the  French 
proverb  says:  Le  premier  pour  la  sante,  le  second 
pour  la  heautSj  le  troisieme  gate  tout.  But  Eng- 
land proves  that  the  last  part  of  the  saying  is  not 
true,  and  health  and  beauty,  those  two  great  bless- 
ings, are  only  injured  where  the  wife  does  not  make 
zealous  use  of  the  intervals  to  repair  the  exhaus- 
tion, undoubtedly  great,  of  the  body,  and  to 
strengthen  it  both  for  what  it  has  gone  and  what 
it  has  to  go  through,  and  where  also  the  intervals 


106      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

are  not  sufficiently  long  to  leave  the  body  the  neces- 
sary time  to  recruit." 

The  Princess  had  a  favourable  convalescence, 
during  which  her  active  mind  was  troubled  by  an 
article  on  Freemasonry.  Her  father,  to  whom  of 
course  she  turned  for  counsel,  had  never  consented 
to  be  initiated  as  a  Mason,  though  his  sons,  King 
Edward  and  the  Duke  of  Connaught,  both  became 
enthusiastic  members  of  the  craft.  The  Princess 
seems  to  have  been  troubled  by  the  idea  that  her 
husband's  connection  with  the  order — ^he  had  been 
appointed  patron  of  the  Masonic  Lodges  of  Prus- 
sia and  head  of  the  Grand  Lodge  in  Berlin — would 
in  some  way  lessen  the  confidence  between  them. 
Prince  Albert  endeavours  to  reassure  her  with  a 
paradox  which  she  probably  found  quite  unconvin- 
cing: 

"I  will  get  Alice  to  read  to  me  the  article  about 
Freemasons.  It  is  not  likely  to  contain  the  whole 
secret.  The  circumstance  which  provokes  you  only 
into  finding  fault  with  the  Order,  namely  that  hus- 
bands dare  not  communicate  the  secret  of  it  to 
their  wives,  is  just  one  of  its  best  features.  If  to 
he  able  to  he  silent  is  one  of  the  chief  virtues  of  the 
husband,  then  the  test  which  puts  him  in  opposi- 
tion to  that  being  towards  whom  he  constantly 
shows  the  greatest  weakness,  is  the  hardest  of  all, 
and  therefore  the  most  compendious  of  virtues,  and 
the  wife  should  not  only  rejoice  to  see  him  capable 
of  withstanding  such  a  test,  but  should  take  occa- 


BIRTH  OF  PRINCE  WILLIAM    107 

sion  out  of  it  to  vie  with  him  in  virtue  by  taming  the 
inborn  curiosity  which  she  inherits  from  her  mother 
Eve.  If  the  subject  of  the  secret,  moreover,  be 
nothing  more  important  than  an  apron,  then  every 
chance  is  given  to  virtue  on  both  sides,  without  dis- 
turbing the  confidence  of  marriage,  which  ought  to 
be  complete." 

The  baby  Prince  William  thrived,  in  spite  of 
the  defect  in  his  left  arm,  which  was  shorter  than 
the  other.  We  have  some  entertaining  glimpses 
of  him,  and  of  his  parents'  pride  in  him,  in  the 
correspondence  of  Priscilla  Lady  Westmorland. 
A  German  friend  of  hers,  a  lady  of  high  rank,  wrote 
to  Lady  Westmorland  when  the  Prince  was  only 
about  a  week  old: 

"I  must  tell  you  of  my  wonderful  good  fortune 
— I  have  actually  seen  this  precious  child  in  his 
father's  arms!  You  will  ask  me  what  this  child 
of  so  many  prayers  and  wishes  is  like.  They  say 
all  babies  are  alike:  I  do  not  think  so:  this  one  has 
a  beautiful  complexion,  pink  and  white,  and  the 
most  lovely  little  hand  ever  seen  I  The  nose  rather 
large ;  the  eyes  were  shut,  which  was  as  well,  as  the 
light  was  so  strong.  His  happy  father  was  hold- 
ing him  in  his  arms,  and  himself  showed  traces  of 
all  he  has  gone  through  at  the  time.  The  child  was 
believed  to  be  dead,  so  you  may  conceive  the  ecstasy 
of  everyone  at  his  first  cry." 

Prince  Frederick  William  was  indeed,  as  this 
lady  put  it,  beside  himself  with  joy.     He  delighted 


108      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

in  showing  his  baby  to  his  friends  and  loyal  serv- 
ants, calling  him  "mein  Junge." 

In  the  early  summer  of  1859  the  Princess  Royal 
spent  a  happy  hohday  at  Osborne,  and  her  English 
relatives  and  friends  thought  her  extraordinarily 
well  and  happy ;  it  was  also  considered  that  she  had 
become  much  better  looking.  The  Queen  describes 
her  as  "flourishing,  and  so  well  and  gay,"  and  as 
"a  most  charming  companion,"  while  Prince  Al- 
bert tells  Stockmar  that  "We  found  Vicky  very 
well,  and  looking  blooming,  somewhat  grown,  and 
in  excellent  spirits.  The  short  stay  here  will  cer- 
tainly be  beneficial  both  to  her  health  and  spirits." 

While  the  Princess  was  in  England,  she  was 
asked  by  her  parents  if  she  would  make  private  in- 
quiries as  to  any  German  princesses  who  might  be 
suited  to  become  Princess  of  Wales,  but  the  search 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  successful.  It  was 
then  that  Sir  Augustus  Paget,  who  had  been  for 
two  years  British  Minister  in  Copenhagen,  spoke 
to  his  fiancee,  the  Princess  Royal's  lady-in-waiting, 
of  Princess  Alexandra.  It  was  from  this  lady, 
now  Walpurga  Lady  Paget,  that  Queen  Victoria 
and  the  Prince  Consort  first  heard  of  the  beauty 
and  many  endearing  graces  of  the  Danish  princess. 
So  impressed  were  they  by  her  account  that  it  was 
arranged  that  the  Princess  Royal  should  meet  Prin- 
cess Alexandra  informally  at  Strelitz,  in  the  palace 
of  the  Grand  Duchess  of  Mecklenburg. 

This  meeting  duly  took  place,  and  the  Princess 


BIRTH  OF  PRINCE  WILLIAM    109 

Royal  wrote  most  enthusiastically  of  the  result  of 
their  informal  interview.  It  was  directly  owing  to 
this  fact  that  it  was  settled  that  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  Princess  Alexandra  should  meet,  as  if  by 
chance,  in  the  cathedral  of  Spiers  with  a  view  to 
making  close  acquaintance. 

The  birth  of  Prince  William  brought  a  consid- 
erable change  in  the  lives  of  his  parents.  Babels- 
berg  had  become  too  small  to  make  a  convenient 
summer  home,  and  so  the  King  granted  them  the 
use  of  the  New  Palace  at  Potsdam,  which  is  only 
about  half  an  hour's  journey  from  Berlin. 

This  enormous  rococo  building  with  its  two 
hundred  rooms  was  erected  by  Frederick  the  Great 
at  the  end  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  in  order  to 
show  his  enemies  that  he  had  plenty  of  money  still 
left  with  which  to  go  to  war  again  if  necessary. 
Prince  Frederick  William  was  very  fond  of  the 
New  Palace,  where  he  had  himself  been  born,  and 
which  was  full  of  reminders  of  his  great  namesake. 
Apparently  the  only  thing  he  did  not  like  about  it 
was  its  name,  for  it  will  be  remembered  that  during 
his  brief  reign  he  altered  it  to  Friedrichskron. 

Queen  Victoria,  on  her  visit  to  Babelsberg  in 
August,  1858,  had  gone  to  see  the  Palace,  and  she 
describes  it  in  her  diary  as  "a  splendid  building 
that  reminded  me  much  of  Hampton  Court — ^the 
same  colour,  same  style,  same  kind  of  garden,  with 
splendid  orange  trees  which  in  the  cool  calm  evening 
sent  out  a  delicious  smell.     The  Garten- Saal,  one 


110      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

enormous  hall,  all  in  marble  with  incrustations  of 
stones,  opening  into  a  splendid  room  or  gallery,  re- 
minded me  of  the  Salle  des  Glaces  at  Versailles. 
There  is  a  theatre  in  the  Palace,  and  many  splendid 
fetes  have  been  given  there.  There  are  some  rooms 
done  in  silver,  like  those  at  Sans  Souci  and  Pots- 
dam, and  all  in  very  rich  Renaissance  style.  The 
millions  it  must  have  cost!  But  none  of  these 
palaces  is  mohnlich  (liveable  in).  None  like  dear 
Babelsberg!" 

The  Princess  Royal  was  determined  to  make  ai 
any  rate  her  own  rooms  in  the  Palace  wohnlich. 
After  the  fashion  of  the  period,  she  surrounded 
herself  with  portraits  of  her  relations,  and  with 
paintings  of  her  various  beloved  English  homes. 
There  were  endless  souvenirs  of  her  childhood 
scattered  about  in  her  rooms — souvenirs  of  her 
Christmases  and  of  birthdays,  little  gifts  presented 
to  her  as  a  child  and  young  girl  by  her  grandmother) 
by  her  "Aunt  Gloucester,"  and  by  all  those  who  had 
surrounded  her  during  the  days  of  her  happy  youth. 

It  is  curious  to  reflect  that,  twenty  years  after 
the  Princess  Royal  first  took  up  her  residence 
there,  an  English  visitor  was  to  write:  "Without 
Carlyle's  Frederick  the  Greats  Potsdam  would  be 
a  collection  of  mere  dead  walls  enclosing  a  number 
of  costly  objects.  Illuminated  by  the  book,  each 
room,  each  garden  wall  thrills  with  human  interest." 
But  when  the  Princess  Royal  first  went  there  to 
make  the  New  Palace  her  home  for  a  part  of  each 


BIRTH  OF  PRINCE  WILLIAM    111 

year,  it  might  much  more  truly  have  been  described 
as  an  arid  and  dusty  waste,  and  that  though  it  was 
surrounded  by  many  waters.  The  gardens  were 
very  stiif,  indeed  ugly,  but  the  Princess's  active, 
creative  mind  saw  their  possibilities,  and  under  her 
fostering  hand  and  taste  they  were  transformed  and 
made  to  yield  the  utmost  of  beauty  and  delight. 

The  New  Palace  henceforth  became  associated, 
in  the  minds  of  all  those  who  were  truly  attached 
to  the  Princess,  with  all  that  was  best  and  most 
peaceful  in  her  life.  It  was  there  that  she  was 
able  to  set  the  example  oi  that  helpful  and  happy 
country  life  which  she  had  learned  to  value  in  Eng- 
land, and  it  was  not  long  before  its  simple  domestic 
character  became  known  far  and  wide,  and  exer- 
cised an  influence  the  extent  of  which  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  estimate. 

The  Prince  and  Princess  had  a  farm  at  Born- 
stedt,  not  far  oif,  and  there  the  Prince  delighted 
to  become  for  the  time  a  simple  farmer,  manag- 
ing himself  all  the  details  of  the  crops  and  the 
labourers,  while  the  Princess  occupied  herself  with 
the  poultry  and  her  model  dairy.  It  may,  indeed, 
be  doubted  whether  the  Prince  and  Princess  found 
the  farm  a  very  good  investment  financially,  but 
that  was  of  small  importance  compared  with  the 
spiritual  refreshment  which  they  derived  from  this 
close  periodical  contact  with  the  simple,  natural 
gifts  of  mother  earth. 

Among  the   neighbouring   villagers,   too,   they 


112      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

found  plenty  of  scope  for  the  exercise  of  an  intelli- 
gent philanthropy,  in  gradually  modifying  the 
primitive  ideas  then  prevalent  on  sanitation,  and  in 
earing  for  the  children  and  the  old  people.  The 
Prince  would  himself  sometimes  teach  in  the  village 
schools.  A  pretty  story  is  told  that  one  day,  when 
he  was  questioning  a  class,  he  asked  a  little  girl  to 
what  kingdom  his  watch-chain  and  a  flower  in  his 
button-hole  respectively  belonged,  and  when  she 
had  answered  correctly,  he  went  on  to  ask,  "To 
what  kingdom  do  I  belong?"  and  the  child  replied, 
"To  the  kingdom  of  Heaven." 

In  June,  1859,  the  war  between  Austria  and 
the  allied  French  and  Sardinian  armies,  culminat- 
ing in  the  defeat  of  the  Austrians  at  Solferino^ 
brought  natural  anxieties  to  the  Princess.  The 
Prince  Regent,  while  declaring  the  neutrality  of 
Prussia,  nevertheless  ordered  a  mobilisation  of  the 
Army  for  the  protection  of  Germany,  and  JNIajor- 
General  Prince  Frederick  William,  commanding 
the  First  Infantry  Brigade  of  Guards,  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  command  of  the  First  Infantry 
Division  of  Guards.  Though  the  Princess,  thus 
early  in  her  married  life,  showed  by  her  quietude 
that  she  was  a  true  soldier's  wdfe,  it  was  a  great 
relief  to  her  when  the  threatened  danger  was  over 
and  the  mobilisation  rescinded  on  the  conclusion 
of  the  Peace  of  Villafranca  in  July.  Prince  Fred- 
erick William's  promotion  to  command  a  division 
was  then  confirmed  by  his  father. 


BIRTH  OF  PRINCE  WILLIAM    113 

The  political  situation,  however,  remained  diffi- 
cult, and  Prince  Albert  and  his  daughter  watched 
it  with  anxious  concern.  The  following  passage 
in  a  letter  of  his  dated  September  is  no  doubt  in  re- 
ply to  some  comments  of  hers  on  the  position  of 
Prussia  and  Germany  in  view  of  the  rising  agita- 
tion for  unity  in  Italy : 

"I  am  for  Prussia's  hegemony;  still  Germany  is 
for  me  first  in  importance,  Prussia  as  Prussia  second. 
Prussia  will  become  the  chief  if  she  stand  at  the 
head  of  Germany:  if  she  merely  seek  to  drag  Ger- 
many down  to  herself,  she  will  not  herself  ascend. 
She  must,  therefore,  be  magnanimous,  act  as  one 
with  the  German  nation  in  a  self-sacrificing  spirit, 
prove  that  she  is  not  bent  on  aggrandisement,  and 
then  she  will  gain  pre-eminence,  and  keep  it,"  and 
he  goes  on  to  point  the  moral  in  the  sacrifices  which 
Sardinia  had  already  made  for  the  Italian  idea. 

In  November  the  Princess  Royal  paid  a  visit  to 
England  with  her  husband  in  time  to  celebrate  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  birthday  on  the  9th,  and  Prince 
Albert  tells  Stockmar: 

"We  find  the  Princess  Royal  looking  extremely 
well,  and  in  the  highest  spirits,  infinitely  lively,  lov- 
ing, and  mentally  active.  In  knowledge  of  the 
world,  she  has  made  great  progress."  The  visit 
lasted  till  December  3,  and  Prince  Albert  wrote  to 
the  Dowager  Duchess  of  Coburg  that  Prince  Fred- 
erick William  "has  delighted  us  much.  Vicky  has 
developed  greatly  of  late,  and  yet  remains  quite  a 


114      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

child;  of  such  indeed  is  the  kingdom  of  Heaven." 

And  after  his  daughter  had  gone  back  to  Berlin, 
the  loving  father  wrote  to  her: 

"Your  dear  visit  has  left  upon  us  the  most  de- 
lightful impression;  you  were  well,  full  of  life  and 
freshness,  and  withal  matured.  I  may  therefore 
yield  to  the  feeling,  sweetest  of  all  to  my  heart  as 
your  father,  that  you  will  be  lastingly  happy.  In 
this  feeling  I  wait  without  apprehension  for  what 
fate  may  bring." 

On  this  visit  to  England  the  Princess  did  not 
fail  to  see  her  old  friend  and  ruler,  Sarah  Lady 
Lyttelton,  who  records : 

"The  dear  Princess  came  in,  habited  and  hatted 
and  cockfeathered  from  her  ride,  looking  very  well 
though  in  a  very  bad  cold.  She  embraced  me  and 
received  me  most  kindly,  and  took  me  into  her  mag- 
nificent sitting-room,  where  I  spent  almost  an  hour 
with  her,  till  she  had  to  go  and  change  her  dress  for 
luncheon.  She  talked  much  of  her  baby  and  in- 
quired after  everybody  belonging  to  me  and  seemed 
as  happy  as  ever." 


CHAPTER  VII 

ADVICE  FROM  ENGLAND 

The  year  1860  was  on  the  whole  a  happy  one  for 
the  Princess  Royal.  It  brought  her  a  long  visit 
from  her  parents  and  the  birth  of  her  eldest 
daughter,  but  on  the  other  side  of  the  account  the 
relations  between  her  two  countries,  England  and 
Prussia,  became  perceptibly  worse. 

For  the  New  Year  her  father  sent  her  one  of 
his  customary  letters  of  sagacious  counsel,  in  which 
may  be  detected  a  certain  note  of  uneasiness  as  to 
the  development  of  his  daughter's  powers  of  self- 
control  : 

"You  enter  upon  the  New  Year  with  hopes, 
which  God  will  surely  graciously  suffer  to  be  ful- 
filled, but  you  do  also  with  good  resolutions,  whose 
fulfilment  hes  within  your  own  hand  and  must 
necessarily  contribute  to  your  success,  also  happi- 
ness, in  this  suffering  and  difficult  world.  Hold 
firmly  by  these  resolutions,  and  evermore  cherish 
the  determination,  with  which  comes  also  strength, 
to  exercise  unlimited  control  over  yourself,  that  the 
moral  law  may  govern  and  the  propensity  obey,' — 
the  end  and  aim  of  all  education  and  culture,  as  we 
long  ago  discovered  and  reasoned  out  together." 

It  is  remarkable  that  early  in  this  year  Prince 

115 


116      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Frederick  William  appears  to  have  been  for  a  time 
the  centre  of  the  hopes  of  the  reactionary  party. 
The  Junkers  actually  planned  to  bring  about  the 
resignation  of  the  Prince  Regent,  and  to  induce 
Prince  Frederick  William  to  assume  the  supreme 
power  and  govern  vrithout  a  constitution,  which 
formed  the  great  obstacle  to  their  military  ambi- 
tions. This  scheme  argued  an  extraordinary  mis- 
apprehension, not  only  of  Prince  Frederick  Wil- 
liam's honest,  straightforward  character,  but  also 
of  all  his  political  ideals.  He  was,  especially  at  this 
period  of  his  life,  a  pure  Constitutionalist,  with  a 
profound  admiration  for  the  free  polity  of  Eng- 
land, and  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  any  form 
of  government  which  would  have  seemed  both  to 
him  and  to  his  wife  more  immoral,  as  well  as  more 
certain  to  entail  a  counter-revolution,  than  a  mili- 
tary dictatorship.  It  is  perhaps  not  without  sig- 
nificance that  in  March  a  British  warship  was 
launched  at  Portsmouth  and  was  named  Frederick 
William  by  way  of  compliment  to  the  husband  of 
the  Princess  Royal. 

In  June  there  was  a  parade  at  the  Konigsberg 
garrison,  at  which  the  Prince  Regent  said  to  his 
son,  "Fritz,  I  appoint  you  to  the  First  Infantry 
Regiment,  the  oldest  Corps  in  the  service,"  and 
about  a  month  afterwards  the  young  commander 
was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Lieutenant- General. 

The  Princess  Royal's  eldest  daughter  was  born 
on  July  24,  and  was  christened  Victoria  Augusta 


ADVICE  FROM  ENGLAND        117 

Charlotte,  being  known  as  Princess  Charlotte  tiU 
her  marriage  in  1878  to  the  Hereditary  Prince  of 
Saxe-Meiningen.  Queen  Victoria  records  the 
news  of  the  baby's  birth  in  her  usual  vivid  style: 

"Soon  after  we  sat  down  to  breakfast  came  a 
telegram  from  Fritz — Vicky  had  got  a  daughter  at 
8.10,  and  both  were  well!  What  joy!  Children 
jumping  about — everyone  delighted' — so  thankful 
and  relieved." 

Only  the  day  before  there  had  come  a  letter 
from  the  Princess  Royal  containing  the  intelhgence 
that  Prince  Louis  of  Hesse  was  ardently  desirous 
of  paying  his  addresses  to  Princess  Alice,  the  Prin- 
cess Royal's  much-loved  sister  and  companion 
of  her  childhood.  To  this  Prince  Albert  refers  in 
writing  to  his  daughter: 

"Only  two  words  of  hearty  joy  can  I  offer  to 
the  dear  newly-made  mother,  and  these  come  from 
an  overflowing  heart.  The  little  daughter  is  a 
kindly  gift  from  heaven,  that  will  (as  I  trust)  pro- 
cure for  you  many  a  happy  hour  in  the  days  to 
come.  The  telegraph  speaks  only  of  your  doing 
well ;  may  this  be  so  in  the  fullest  sense ! 

"Upon  the  subject  of  your  last  interesting  and 
most  important  letter,  I  have  replied  to  Fritz,  who 
will  communicate  to  you  as  much  of  my  answer  as 
is  good  for  you  under  present  circumstances. 
Alice  is  very  grateful  for  your  love  and  kindness  to 
her,  and  the  young  man  behaves  in  a  manner  truly 
admirable." 


118      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

A  few  days  later  the  anxious  father  writes  to 
the  young  mother  one  of  his  curious  medical  homi- 
lies : 

"I  hope  you  are  very  quiet,  and  keep  this  well  in 
mind,  that  although  you  are  well,  and  feel  yourself 
well,  the  body  has  to  take  on  a  new  conformation, 
and  the  nervous  system  a  new  life.  Only  rest  of 
brain,  heart,  and  body,  along  with  good  nourish- 
ment, and  its  assimilation  by  regular  undisturbed 
digestion,  can  restore  the  animal  forces.  My  phy- 
siological treatise  should  not  bore  you,  for  it  is  al- 
ways good  to  keep  the  great  principles  in  view,  in 
accordance  with  which  we  have  to  regulate  our  ac- 
tions." 

But  it  was  not  all  physiological  treatise  that  was 
despatched  from  Osborne  to  Berlin.  The  Prince 
has  an  amusing  reference  to  the  busy  importance 
with  which  the  little  Princess  Beatrice,  who  was 
then  three  and  a  quarter  years  old,  regarded  the 
arrival  of  her  first  niece : 

"The  little  girl  must  be  a  darling.  Little 
maidens  are  much  prettier  than  boys.  I  advise  her 
to  model  herself  after  her  Aunt  Beatrice.  That 
excellent  lady  has  now  not  a  moment  to  spare.  *I 
have  no  time,'  she  says,  when  she  is  asked  for  any- 
thing, 'I  must  write  letters  to  my  niece.' 

"It  will  make  you  laugh,  if  I  tell  you  that  I 
have  christened  a  black  mare  Ayah  (as  black 
nurse).  I  lately  asked  the  groom  what  was  the 
horse's  name,  which  I  had  forgotten.     'Haya,'  was 


ADVICE  FROM  ENGLAND        119 

the  answer.  'What?'  I  asked.  'We  spell  it  Hay, 
Why,  Hay.'  You  should  call  your  Westphalian 
nurse,  'Hay,  Why,  Hay!'" 

It  had  been  arranged  that  the  Queen  and  Prince 
Albert  should  pay  their  visit  to  their  daughter  and 
son-in-law  at  Coburg  at  the  end  of  September. 
By  a  most  unfortunate  chance  there  had  occurred 
about  the  middle  of  the  month  one  of  those  "in- 
cidents" which  are  sometimes,  when  mishandled  by 
officialdom  and  magnified  by  offended  national 
pride,  allowed  to  exercise  an  influence  ludicrously 
disproportionate  to  their  real  triviality.  The  Mac- 
donald  affair,  as  it  was  called,  at  one  moment 
threatened  to  bring  about  a  serious  breach  between 
England  and  Prussia,  and  as  it  was  unquestion- 
ably one  of  the  causes  of  the  dislike  and  susj^icion 
with  which  the  Princess  Royal  was  to  be  regarded 
by  a  section  of  the  Prussians,  it  is  worth  while  to 
record  it  in  some  detail. 

A  Scottish  gentleman,  a  certain  Captain  Mac- 
donald,  had  a  dispute  about  a  seat  in  a  railway 
carriage  at  Bonn.  He  knew  no  German,  was 
ignorant  of  Prussian  law,  and  very  likely  behaved, 
or  was  considered  by  the  authorities  to  have  be- 
haved, in  an  autocratic  manner.  However  that 
may  be,  he  was  not  only  ejected  from  the  carriage 
but  was  committed  to  prison,  where  he  remained 
from  September  12  to  18.  On  the  18th  he  was 
tried  and  fined  twenty  thalers  and  costs.  The  Eng- 
lish residents  at  Bonn  warmly  espoused  his  cause. 


120      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

and  Captain  Macdonald  seems,  apart  from  the 
original  dispute,  to  have  had  reason  to  complain  of 
violence  used  to  him  and  also  of  his  treatment  while 
in  prison.  It  was  also  particularly  unfortunate 
that  at  the  trial  the  Staatsprocurator,  or  public 
prosecutor,  should  have  denounced  the  behaviour 
when  abroad  of  English  people  generally.  "The 
English  residing  and  travelling,"  he  said,  "are  no- 
torious for  the  rudeness,  impudence,  and  boorish 
arrogance  of  their  conduct." 

This  accusation,  whether  well  founded  or  not, 
naturally  seemed  to  English  lawyers  and  the  Eng- 
lish public  a  piece  of  gratuitous  irrelevance,  in- 
tended merely  to  excite  prejudice  against  Captain 
Macdonald.  It  is  impossible  now  to  apportion  the 
blame  for  the  way  in  which  the  incident  was  allowed 
to  embitter  public  opinion  in  both  countries.  The 
affair  dragged  on  for  months — ^indeed,  it  was  not 
finally  disposed  of  till  the  following  May.  There 
were  questions  in  Parliament,  Lord  Palmerston 
was  extremely  angry,  and  an  article  in  the  Times 
served  to  pour  oil  on  the  flame. 

In  the  circumstances  the  incident  inevitably 
rather  dashed  the  joy  of  the  happy  family  party  at 
Coburg.  The  Queen  conferred  with  Lord  John 
Russell,  then  Foreign  Secretary,  whom  she  had 
brought  with  her,  and  she  alludes  in  her  journal  to 
"the  ejection  and  imprisonment  (unfairly,  it  seems) 
of  a  Captain  Macdonald,  and  the  subsequent  of- 
fensive behaviour  of  the  authorities.     It  has  led 


ADVICE  FROM  ENGLAND        121 

to  ill  blood,  and  much  correspondence,  but  Lord 
John  is  very  reasonable  about  it,  and  not  inclined 
to  do  anything  rash.  These  foreign  governments 
are  very  arbitrary  and  violent,  and  our  people  apt 
to  give  oif ence,  and  to  pay  no  regard  to  the  laws 
of  the  country." 

The  Queen  and  Prince  Albert  arrived  at  Coburg 
on  September  25,  and  the  Princess  Royal  delighted 
in  visiting  with  her  father  the  scenes  of  his  boy- 
hood. She  went  with  the  guns  to  a  drive  of  wild 
boars,  and  almost  every  day  there  was  an  expedi- 
tion to  some  interesting  place  in  all  the  rehef  of 
incognito.  One  day  Prince  Albert  had  a  narrow 
escape.  He  was  alone  in  an  open  carriage  when 
the  horses  ran  away.  With  great  presence  of 
mind,  he  jumped  out,  and  happily  got  off  with 
nothing  worse  than  a  few  cuts  and  bruises.  Gustav 
Freytag,  the  distinguished  German  novelist  and 
dramatist,  was  received,  and  the  Queen  records 
that  there  was  much  conversation  with  him  after 
dinner.  As  we  shall  see  later,  Freytag  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  confidence  of  the  Princess  Royal  and 
her  husband,  and  he  repaid  their  kindness  in  strange 
fashion. 

It  was  on  this  visit  that  the  Queen  saw  her  eldest 
grandchild  for  the  first  time.  Writing  on  Sep- 
tember 25,  she  says : 

"Our  darling  grandchild  was  brought.  Such  a 
little  love!  He  came  walking  in  at  Mrs.  Hobbs's 
[his  nurse's]  hand,  in  a  little  white  dress  with  black 


122      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

bows,  and  was  so  good.  He  is  a  fine,  fat  child, 
with  a  beautiful  white  soft  skin,  very  fine  shoulders 
and  limbs,  and  a  very  dear  face,  like  Vicky  and 
Fritz,  and  also  Louise  of  Baden.  He  has  Fritz's 
eyes  and  Vicky's  mouth,  and  very  fair  curly  hair. 
We  felt  so  happy  to  see  him  at  last!" 

This  was  the  beginning  of  an  enduring  friend- 
ship between  grandmother  and  grandson,  and  no 
one  with  any  historical  imagination  can  help  re- 
calling the  last  scene  of  that  friendship,  when  this 
fine  little  boy,  grown  to  be  a  mighty  Emperor, 
hastened  to  share  the  grief  of  the  English  people 
at  the  death-bed  of  their  great  Queen. 

The  Queen  was  evidently  much  attracted  by  the 
already  characteristic  energy  of  the  little  Prince, 
for  there  are  references  to  him  all  through  her  rec- 
ords of  this  visit: 

"Dear  little  William  came  to  me  as  he  does  every 
morning.  He  is  such  a  darling,  so  intelligent.'* 
"Dear  little  Wilhelm  as  usual  with  me  before  din- 
ner— a  darling  child."  "The  dear  little  boy  is  so 
intelligent  and  pretty,  so  good  and  affectionate." 
"Had  a  last  visit  from  dear  Stockmar.  Towards 
the  end  of  his  stay,  dear  little  William  came  in  and 
played  about  the  room."  "The  darling  little  boy 
with  us  for  nearly  an  hour,  running  about  so  dearly 
and  merrily."  "At  Cologne  our  darling  little  Wil- 
liam was  brought  into  our  carriage  to  bid  good-bye. 
I  felt  the  parting  deeply." 

Prince  Albert  wrote  to  the  Duchess  of  Kent: 


ADVICE  FROM  ENGLAND         123 

*'Your  great-grandson  is  a  very  pretty,  clever  child 
— a  compound  of  both  parents,  just  as  it  should  be." 

Mrs.  Georgina  Hobbs,  the  nurse  mentioned 
above,  first  went  to  Germany  as  a  maid  in  the  serv- 
ice of  the  Princess  Royal  on  her  marriage,  and  was 
afterwards  promoted  to  be  chief  nurse  to  the  Royal 
children.  Prince  William  and  his  brother  and  sis- 
ters were  devotedly  attached  to  "Hobbsy,"  as  they 
called  her,  and  it  was  from  "Hobbsy"  that  they 
learnt  English,  for  their  parents  always  talked  Ger- 
man to  one  another. 

The  Princess  Royal,  perhaps  naturally,  preferred 
to  have  her  children's  nursery  arranged  and  con- 
ducted on  the  English  rather  than  on  the  German 
model,  but  who  can  doubt  that  in  this,  as  in  other 
matters  of  even  less  importance,  she  would  have 
done  better  to  have  studied  the  susceptibilities  of  her 
adopted  country?  Indeed,  Dr.  Hinzpeter,  who 
was  afterwards  appointed  the  tutor  of  her  sons, 
bears  witness?  that  her  nursery  management  be- 
came a  great  subject  of  gossip  among  the  Berlin- 
ers,  and  stories  were  even  current  of  corporal 
punishment  administered  before  the  Court  to 
princes  with  dirty  faces.  It  is  true  that  Dr.  Hinz- 
peter describes  these  stories  as  mythical,  but  the 
fact  that  they  were  circulated  and  believed  helps 
to  account  for  the  Princess's  growing  unpopular- 
ity. 

At  this  period  Prince  Albert  was  seriously  dis- 
turbed by  the  attacks  which  the  Times  was  con- 


124      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

stantly  making  on  Prussia  and  everything  Prus- 
sian. In  an  article  in  the  Saturday  Review,  rec- 
ommended by  him  to  his  daughter,  it  was  said: 
"The  only  reason  the  Times  ever  gives  for  its  dis- 
like of  Prussia,  is  that  the  Prussian  and  English 
Courts  are  connected  by  personal  ties,  and  that 
British  independence  demands  that  everything 
proceeding  from  the  Court  should  be  watched  with 
the  most  jealous  suspicion." 

The  Prince  was  honestly  indifferent  to  the  in- 
sinuations against  himself  by  which  these  attacks 
were  frequently  pointed,  but  he  was  reasonably 
anxious  about  the  bad  effect  they  would  have  in 
Germany.  Writing  to  his  daughter  on  October 
24,  after  his  return  to  England,  he  refers  to  the 
Macdonald  affair,  which  had  already  become  acute : 

"What  abominable  articles  the  Times  has 
against  Prussia!  That  of  yesterday  upon  War- 
saw and  Schleinitz  is  positively  too  wicked.  It  is 
the  Bonn  story  which  continues  to  operate,  and  a 
total  estrangement  between  the  two  countries  may 
ensue,  if  a  newspaper  war  be  kept  up  for  some 
time  between  the  two  nations.  Feelings,  and  not 
argimients,  constitute  the  basis  for  actions.  An 
embitterment  of  feeling  between  England  and 
Prussia  would  be  a  great  misfortune,  and  yet  they 
are  content  in  Berlin  to  make  no  move  in  the  Bonn 
affair." 

It  was  only  too  true  that  the  Prussian  Govern- 
ment was  in  no  hurry  to  settle  the  Macdonald 


ADVICE  FROM  ENGLAND        125 

affair.  The  bitterness  which  it  engendered  did  not 
die  out  till  long  after  its  formal  termination  in 
May  of  the  following  year,  and  undoubtedly  it 
contributed  far  more  than  was  suspected  at  the 
time  to  increase  the  delicacy  and  difficulty  of 
the  Princess  Royal's  position.  It  was  actually 
thought  in  Germany  that  she  inspired  the  attacks 
in  the  British  Press.  "This  attitude  of  the  Eng- 
lish newspapers  preys  upon  the  Princess  Royal's 
spirits  and  materially  affects  her  position  in 
Prussia,"  so  wrote  Lord  Clarendon. 

This  autumn  and  winter  Prince  Albert,  in  spite 
of  many  political  and  other  anxieties  and  a  sharp 
attack  of  illness,  faithfully  continued  to  instruct 
his  daughter  in  the  art  of  government. 

It  does  not  seem  ever  to  have  crossed  his  mind 
that  such  instruction,  though  admirable  in  itself, 
was  ill-advised  in  view  of  his  pupil's  position. 
The  ideal  woman  in  Prussia  was  then,  and  still  is 
to  a  large  extent,  one  who,  conscious  of  her  intel- 
lectual inferiority,  contents  herself  with  managing 
her  household  and  children.  If  this  view  obtained 
with  regard  to  women  in  private  stations,  much 
more  was  it  considered  to  be  the  duty  of  princesses 
of  the  Royal  House  to  abstain  from  any  active 
interest  in  public  affairs.  But  either  Prince  Al- 
bert did  not  appreciate  this,  or  it  is  possible  that 
he  thought  his  daughter  to  be  freed  by  her  excep- 
tional ability  from  the  ordinary  restrictions  and 
limitations  of  her  rank.     There  is  yet  a  third  possi- 


126      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

bility — that  he  did  not  altogether  trust  his  son-in- 
law's  political  judgment,  and  was  anxious  to  give 
him,  in  the  troublous  times  that  seemed  impending, 
an  help-meet  who  could  influence  him  in  the  right, 
that  is  in  the  Coburg,  direction.  Whatever  may- 
have  been  the  reason,  the  Prince  certainly  con- 
tinued to  the  end  of  his  life  to  cultivate  his  daugh- 
ter's knowledge  and  grasp  of  public  affairs. 

In  December,  1860,  the  Prince  Consort  received 
from  Berlin  a  memorandum  upon  the  advantages 
of  a  law  of  Ministerial  responsibility.  Its  object 
was  to  remove  the  apprehensions  entertained  in 
high  quarters  at  the  Prussian  Court  as  to  the  ex- 
pediency of  a  measure  of  this  kind.  This  memo- 
randum was  the  work  of  the  Princess  Royal,  and  it 
is  easy  to  imagine  what  a  storm  of  indignation 
would  have  arisen  in  Prussia  if  by  any  accident 
or  indiscretion  the  knowledge  that  the  Princess 
had  written  such  a  paper  had  leaked  out. 

Still,  it  was  undoubtedly  an  able  piece  of  work. 
Sir  Theodore  Martin  says  that  it  would  have  been 
remarkable  as  the  work  of  an  experienced  states- 
man; and,  as  the  fruit  of  the  liberal  political  views 
in  which  the  Prince  had  been  at  pains  to  train  its 
author,  it  must  have  filled  his  mind  with  the  hap- 
piest auguries  for  her  fulfilment  of  the  great  career 
which  lay  before  her.  "It  would  have  delighted 
your  heart  to  read  it,"  were  his  words  in  writing 
to  Baron  Stockmar. 

To  his  daughter  he  sent  a  long  and  flattering 


ADVICE  FROM  ENGLAND        127 

reply  beginning:  "It  is  remarkably  clear  and 
complete,  and  does  you  the  greatest  credit.  I 
agree  with  every  word  of  it,  and  feel  sure  it  must 
convince  everyone  who  is  open  to  conviction  from 
sound  logic,  and  prepared  to  follow  what  sound 
logic  dictates." 

This  pathetic  faith  in  the  potency  of  logic  in 
pohtical  affairs  is  hard  to  reconcile  with  the  Prince 
Consort's  earlier  and  sounder  dictum  that  feelings, 
not  arguments,  constitute  the  basis  for  actions.  It 
is  evident  from  the  rest  of  the  letter  that  the  Prin- 
cess had  laid  it  down  that  the  responsibility  of  his 
advisers  does  not  in  fact  impair  the  monarch's 
dignity  and  importance,  but  is  really  for  him  the 
best  of  safeguards.  She  had  gone  on  to  discuss 
the  proposition  that  the  patriarchal  relation  in 
which  the  monarchs  of  old  were  supposed  to  stand 
towards  their  people  was  preferable  to  the  consti- 
tutional system  which  interposes  the  Minister  be- 
tween the  sovereign  and  his  subjects.  Her 
father's  comments  on  this  would  have  seemed  to 
many  Prussians  most  heretical  doctrine  to  be  im- 
parted to  their  future  Queen. 

The  patriarchal  relation,  he  says,  is  pretty  much 
like  the  idyllic  life  of  the  Arcadian  shepherds — a 
figure  of  speech,  and  not  much  more.  It  was  the 
fashionable  phrase  of  an  historical  transition- 
period.  Monarchy  in  the  days  of  Attila,  of  Char- 
lemagne, of  the  Hohenstaufen,  of  the  Austrian 
Emperors,  of  Louis  XI,  XII,  XIII,  XIV,  XV, 


128      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

&c.,  was  as  little  like  a  patriarchal  relation  as  any- 
thing could  be.  On  the  contrary  it  was  sover- 
eignty based  upon  spoliation,  war,  murder, 
oppression,  and  massacre.  That  relation  was  sedu- 
lously developed  in  the  small  German  States, 
whose  rulers  were  little  more  than  great  landed 
proprietors,  during  a  short  period  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  was  cherished  out  of  a  sentimental 
feeling.  It  then  gave  way  before  the  Voltairean 
philosophy  during  the  reigns  of  Frederick  II, 
Joseph  II,  Louis  XVI,  &c.,  was  turned  topsy- 
turvy by  the  French  Revolution,  and  finally  ex- 
tinguished in  the  military  despotism  of  Napo- 
leon. 

The  Prince  went  on  to  say  that  in  the  great  war 
of  liberation  the  people  and  their  princes  stood 
by  one  another  in  struggling  for  the  establishment 
of  civic  freedom,  first  against  the  foreign  oppres- 
sor, and  then  as  citizens  in  their  own  country;  and 
the  treaties  of  1815,  as  well  as  the  appeal  to  the 
people  in  1813,  decreed  constitutional  government 
in  every  country.  The  charter  was  granted  in 
France,  and  special  constitutions  were  promised 
in  all  the  States;  even  to  Poland  the  promise  of 
one  was  made,  although  there,  as  well  as  in  Prussia 
and  Austria,  that  promise  was  not  kept.  Then 
came  the  Holy  Alliance  and  introduced  reaction 
into  Germany,  France,  Spain,  and  Italy,  by  dint 
of  sword  and  Congress  (in  1817-1823).  Once 
more  the  patriarchal  relation  was  fostered  with 


ADVICE  FROM  ENGLAND        129 

the  sentimentalism  of  the  Kotzebue  school,  and  the 
betrayed  peoples  were  required  to  become  good 
children,  because  the  Princes  styled  themselves 
good  fathers!  The  July  Revolution,  and  all  that 
has  taken  place  since  then,  sufficiently  demonstrate 
that  the  peoples  neither  will  nor  can  play  the  part 
of  children. 

As  for  the  personal  government  of  absolute 
Sovereigns,  Prince  Albert  declared  that  to  be  a 
pure  illusion.  Nowhere  does  history  present  us 
with  such  cases  of  government  by  Ministers  and 
favourites  as  in  the  most  absolute  monarchies,  be- 
cause nowhere  can  the  Minister  play  so  safe  a 
game.  A  Court  cabal  is  the  only  thing  he  has 
to  fear,  and  he  is  well  skilled  in  the  ways  by  which 
this  is  to  be  strangled.  History  is  full  of  exam- 
ples. Recent  instances  have  occurred  where  the 
personal  discredit  into  which  the  Sovereign  has 
fallen  makes  the  maintenance  of  the  monarchy,  not 
as  a  form  of  government,  but  as  an  effective  State 
machine,  all  but  impossible.  When,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  King  of  Naples,  this  result  has  arisen,  all 
that  people  are  able  to  say  in  defence  is,  "He  was 
surrounded  by  a  bad  set,  he  was  badly  advised, 
he  did  not  know  the  state  the  country  was  in." 
To  what  purpose,  then,  is  personal  government, 
if  a  man  in  his  own  person  knows  nothing  and 
learns  nothing? 

The  Sovereign  should  give  himself  no  trouble, 
said  the  Prince  in  conclusion,  about  details,  but 


130      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

exercise  a  broad  and  general  supervision,  and  see 
to  the  settlement  of  the  principles  on  which  action 
is  to  be  based.  This  he  can,  nay,  must  do,  where 
he  has  responsible  Ministers,  who  are  under  the 
necessity  of  obtaining  his  sanction  to  the  system 
which  they  pursue  and  intend  to  uphold  in  Parlia- 
ment. This  the  personally  ruling  Sovereign  can- 
not do,  because  he  is  smothered  in  details,  does 
not  see  the  wood  for  the  trees,  and  has  no  occasion 
to  come  to  an  agreement  with  his  Ministers  about 
principles  and  systems,  which  to  both  him  and 
them  can  only  appear  to  be  a  great  burden  and 
superfluous  nuisance. 

How  these  doctrines  would  have  been  regarded 
by  probably  the  majority  of  Prussians  appears 
from  another  letter  which  the  Prince  wrote  a  fort- 
night later.  His  daughter  had  sent  him  an  article 
from  the  Conservative  Kreuz-Zdtung ,  and  on  it 
he  comments: 

"The  article  expresses  in  plain  terms  the  view 
that  Monarchy  as  an  institution  has  for  that  party 
a  value  only  so  long  as  it  is  based  upon  arbitrary 
will;  and  so  these  people  arrive  at  precisely  the 
same  confession  of  faith  as  the  Red  democrats,  by 
reason  of  which  a  Republic  is  certain  to  prove 
neither  more  nor  less  than  an  arbitrary  despotism. 
Freedom  and  order,  which  are  set  up  as  political 
antitheses,  are,  on  the  contrary,  in  fact,  synony- 
mous, and  the  necessary  consequences  of  legality. 
'The  majesty  of  the  law'  is  an  idea  which  upon 


ADVICE  FROM  ENGLAND        131 

the  Continent  is  not  yet  comprehended,  probably 
because  people  cannot  realise  to  themselves  a  dead 
thing  as  the  supreme  power,  and  seek  for  personal 
power  in  government  or  people.  And  yet  virtue 
and  morality  are  also  dead  things,  which  neverthe- 
less have  a  prerogative  and  a  vocation  to  govern 
living  men — divine  laxvs,  upon  which  our  human 
laws  ought  to  be  moulded." 

Christmas  brought  the  customary  exchange  of 
loving  gifts.  Prince  Louis  of  Hesse,  now  the  be- 
trothed of  Princess  Alice,  joined  the  family  circle 
in  England,  and  Prince  Albert  writes  to  his 
daughter  in  Berlin: 

"Oh!  if  you,  with  Fritz  and  the  children,  were 
only  with  us!  Louis  was  an  accession.  He  is  a 
very  dear  good  fellow,  who  pleases  us  better  and 
better  daily.  In  my  abstraction  I  call  him  'Fritz.' 
Your  Fritz  must  not  take  it  amiss,  for  it  is  only 
the  personification  of  a  beloved,  newly-bestowed, 
full-grown  son. 

"But  to  return  to  the  dear  Christmas  festival! 
Your  gifts  which  were  there  have  caused  the 
highest  delight,  and  those  we  have  yet  to  expect 
will  be  looked  for  with  impatience.  To  the  latter 
belong  Wilhelm's  bust,  Fritz's  boar's  head — for 
which  in  the  meantime  I  beg  you  will  give  the 
luck}'  huntsman  my  hearty  thanks.  Wilhelm 
shall  be  placed  in  the  light  you  wish  when  he  issues 
(I  hope  unbroken)  from  his  dusty  box.  The 
album,  which  arrived  yesterday  morning,  is  very 


132      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

precious  to  us,  as  it  enables  us  to  Kve  altogether 
beside  you^ — in  imagination. 

"Prejudice  walking  to  and  fro  in  flesh  and  blood 
is  my  horror,  and,  alas,  a  phenomenon  so  common; 
and  people  plume  themselves  so  much  upon  their 
prejudices,  as  signs  of  decision  of  character  and 
greatness  of  mind,  nay  of  true  patriotism;  and  all 
the  while  they  are  simply  the  product  of  narrow- 
ness of  intellect  and  narrowness  of  heart." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

DEATH  OF  THE  KING  OF  PRUSSIA 

On  January  2,  1861,  died  the  King  of  Prussia, 
Frederick  William  IV,  and  his  brother,  the  Prince 
Regent,  succeeded  as  William  I.  Prince  Freder- 
ick William  became  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia,  and 
henceforth  the  Princess  Royal  was  called,  both  in 
England  and  in  Germany,  the  Crown  Princess. 

In  the  Letters  of  Queen  Victoria  there  is  a  most 
impressive  account,  written  by  the  Princess  Royal, 
and  there  published  for  the  first  time,  of  the  death 
of  the  King  of  Prussia.  The  event  moved  her 
the  more  deeply  because,  not  only  was  she  present 
at  the  death-bed,  but  it  was  really  her  first  sight 
of  death. 

The  King  had  been  ailing  so  long  that  those 
about  him  had  ceased  to  be  specially  anxious.  On 
Monday  evening,  December  31,  the  Prince  and 
Princess  Frederick  William  were  sitting  at  tea 
with  the  Prince  Regent  and  the  Princess  of 
Prussia,  when  there  was  brought  bad  news  from 
San  Souci,  but  still  nothing  to  make  them  par- 
ticularly uneasy.  In  the  middle  of  the  night,  or 
rather  early  next  morning,  they  were  called  up 
with  the  intelligence  that  all  hope  for  the  King 
had  been  abandoned. 

Without  waiting  for  any  kind  of  carriage,  al- 
ias 


134      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

though,  as  the  Princess  notes,  there  were  twelve 
degrees  of  cold  Reaumur,  she  and  Prince  Fred- 
erick William  hurried  on  foot  to  the  Prince  of 
Prussia's  palace.  From  thence  they  went  in  a 
special  train  to  Potsdam.  There  they  found  the 
King  dying,  and  the  members  of  the  Royal  family 
standing  round  watching  the  death  struggle.  The 
painful  scene  went  on  till  five  the  next  afternoon, 
when  Prince  Frederick  William  wisely  sent  the 
Princess  off  to  bed.  At  one  o'clock  in  the  morning 
of  January  2  they  were  again  called,  with  the  news 
that  the  King  had  not  many  minutes  more  to  live. 

The  letter  in  which  all  these  facts  are  recorded 
is  a  remarkable  composition,  especially  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  writer  was  only  twenty. 
We  may  be  sure  that  any  thought  of  literary  effect 
was  far  from  her,  and  yet  no  one,  reading  it  now 
after  the  lapse  of  so  many  years,  can  be  insensible 
to  the  poignancy  of  this  simple,  unstudied,  almost 
artless  description  of  the  scene  in  the  death- 
chamber — the  dim  lamp;  the  silence  broken  only 
by  the  crackling  of  the  fire  and  the  death-rattle; 
the  Queen,  Elizabeth,  continually  wiping  the  per- 
spiration from  the  dying  man's  forehead. 

But  the  letter  also  shows  how  really  noble  was 
the  new  Crown  Princess's  outlook  on  life.  She 
speaks  with  the  warmest  affection  of  her  parents- 
in-law:  "May  God  bless  and  preserve  them,  and 
may  theirs  be  a  long  and  happy  reign,"  and  she 
goes  on  to  describe  the  King  as  he  lay  dead,  peace- 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    135 

fill  and  quiet  like  a  sleeping  child.  She  could 
hardly  bring  herself  to  believe  that  this  was  really 
death,  "that  which  I  had  so  often  shuddered  at  and 
felt  afraid  of";  there  was  nothing  dreadful  or  ap- 
palling, only  a  heavenly  calm  and  peace. 

The  Crown  Princess  also  speaks  with  deep  feel- 
ing for  the  Queen  Dowager,  who  had  never  really 
liked  her,  and  who,  as  we  know,  had  been  in  sym- 
pathy so  pro-Russian  all  through  the  Crimean 
War.  But  this  grief  brought  the  two  together  as 
perhaps  nothing  else  could  have  done,  and  the 
Princess  says:  "She  was  so  kind  to  me,  kinder 
than  she  has  ever  been  yet,  and  said  I  was  like  her 
own  child  and  a  comfort  to  her." 

Prince  Albert  was  evidently  greatly  moved  by 
his  daughter's  letter.  In  his  reply  he  reminds  her 
that  in  one  of  the  most  impressive  experiences  of 
life  she  was  now  older  than  himself.  "The  more 
frequently  you  look  upon  the  body,  the  stronger 
will  be  your  conviction  that  yonder  casing  is  not 
the  man,  yea,  that  it  is  scarcely  conceivable  how  it 
can  have  been.  In  seeing  and  observing  the  ap- 
proach of  death,  as  you  have  been  called  upon  to 
do,  j'ou  have  become  older  in  experience  than  my- 
self. I  have  never  seen  anyone  die."  To  Stock- 
mar  the  Prince  wrote  that  "The  Princess,  now 
Crown  Princess,  has  in  the  late  trying  time  at 
Berlin  again  behaved  quite  admirably,  and  receives 
on  all  sides  the  most  entire  recognition." 

That  same  eventful  January  of  1861,  the  Prin- 


186      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

cess  lost  two  firm  and  loyal  friends  in  Lord 
and  Lady  Bloomfield.  She  parted  with  them 
with  great  regret,  and  presented  to  Lady  Bloom- 
field  a  bust  of  little  Prince  William  done  by  her- 
self. 

At  that  time  it  must  indeed  have  seemed  to  the 
Crown  Princess  as  if  all  her  own  and  her  husband's 
hopes  and  aspirations  for  a  full  and  useful  public 
life  were  about  to  be  amply  fulfilled.  The  new 
King  had  not  only  always  been  an  affectionate 
father  to  his  only  son  and  heir,  but  he  had  also  been 
marked  among  the  princes  of  his  time  for  his 
liberal  opinions  and  English  sympathies. 

The  third  anniversary  of  the  Crown  Princess's 
marriage  came  very  soon  after  the  death  of  the 
old  King,  and  writing  on  that  day  to  her  mother 
she  said:  "Every  time  our  dear  wedding  day  re- 
turns I  feel  so  happy  and  thankful — and  live  every 
moment  of  that  blessed  and  never-to-be-forgotten 
day  over  again  in  thought.  I  love  to  dwell  on 
every  minute  of  the  day;  not  a  hope  has  been  dis- 
appointed, not  an  expectation  that  has  not  been 
realised,  and  much  more — ^that  few  can  say — ^and 
I  am  thankful  as  I  ought  to  be." 

Soon  after  the  accession  of  William  I,  Herr 
Max  Duncker  was  formally  attached  to  the  Crown 
Prince  as  a  channel  of  communication  in  State 
matters.  Duncker  had  been  Professor  of  History 
at  the  Universities  of  Halle  and  Tiibingen,  and 
had  also  obtained  some  practical  experience  of 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA     187 

politics  as  a  member  of  the  Frankfort  and  Erfurt 
Diet,  and  as  a  Prussian  deputy.  He  had  indeed 
been  chosen  by  Stockmar  for  the  position  of  con- 
fidential adviser  to  the  Prince,  with  whom  and  with 
the  Princess  he  was  already  in  favour;  and  he  saw 
in  his  new  post  an  opportunity  of  sowing  seed 
which  might  one  day  spring  up  and  bear  fruit  an 
hundred-fold. 

In  March  the  death  of  the  Duchess  of  Kent  de- 
prived the  Crown  Princess  of  a  grandmother  to 
whom  she  had  been  very  warmly  attached,  and  with 
whom  was  associated  all  the  events  of  her  happy 
childhood  and  girlhood. 

On  receiving  the  unexpected  news,  for  the 
Duchess  of  Kent  had  only  been  reaUy  ill  a  few 
hours,  the  Princess  started  for  England,  not 
entirely  with  the  approval  of  her  father-in-law. 
The  Prince  Consort,  who  in  this  matter  of  his 
daughter's  relations  to  her  father-in-law  always 
showed  exceptional  tact,  wrote  and  thanked  the 
King:  "Her  stay  here  has  been  a  great  comfort 
and  dehght  to  us  in  our  sorrow  and  bereavement, 
and  we  are  truly  grateful  for  it." 

The  problem  of  the  Schleswig-Holstein  duchies 
and  the  unfortunate  Macdonald  affair  combined 
to  draw  England  and  Prussia  still  further  apart. 
It  is  true  that  the  latter  was  formally  settled  in 
May,  but  the  bad  feeling  it  created  was  not  ap-' 
peased.  Lord  Palmerston  said  in  the  House  that 
the  conduct  of  the  Prussian  Government  had  been 


138      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

a  blunder  as  well  as  a  crime,  while  the  Prussian 
Foreign  Minister  (Baron  von  Schleinitz),  then 
on  the  eve  of  his  retirement,  retaliated  with  a  stiff 
rejoinder. 

A  leading  article  in  the  Times,  backing  up 
Palmerston's  view,  is  described  by  Prince  Albert, 
in  a  letter  to  Berlin,  as  "studiedly  insulting."  At 
the  same  time  the  Prince  saw  clearly  that  Schlein- 
itz had  made  a  mistake  in  mixing  up  the  Macdonald 
affair  with  la  haute  politique.  "In  Germany  the 
idea  of  the  State  in  the  abstract  is  a  thing  divine; 
here  it  means  the  freedom  of  the  individual  citizen." 
And  he  goes  on  to  say  that  the  feeling  in  England 
ought  to  teach  Prussia  that  mere  talk  will  not 
do. 

"Prussia  has  been  always  talking  of  being  the 
only  natural  and  real  ally  of  England,  but  since 
1815  she  has  taken  no  part  in  any  European  ques- 
tion. Prussia  sets  up  a  claim  to  stand  at  the  head 
of  Germany,  but  she  is  not  German  in  her  con- 
duct. The  Zollverein  was  the  only  really  German 
action  to  which  she  can  point.  She  leads  Germany, 
not  upon  the  path  of  liberty  and  constitutional 
development,  which  Germany  (Prussia  included) 
requires  and  desires.  I  can  imagine  that  with  the 
high  military  pretensions  to  which  she  has  laid 
claim  for  the  last  forty-five  years,  she  suffers  under 
an  oppressive  consciousness  that  her  army  is  the 
only  one  which  during  this  long  period  has  not  been 
called  into  action.     I  repeat,  however,  that  a  large. 


HIS  ROYAL  HIGHNESS 

PRINCE  FREDERICK  WILLIAM   OF   PRUSSIA 

PAINTED  AT  BUCKINGHAM  PALACE,  JUNE  1857,  BY  WINTERHALTER 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA     139 

liberal,  generous  policy  is  the  preliminary  condi- 
tion for  an  alliance  with  England,  for  hegemony 
in  Germany,  and  for  her  military  renown." 

These  were  the  views  with  which  the  Crown 
Princess  was  steadily  indoctrinated.  It  is  possi- 
ble that  she  found  them  a  little  too  cool  and  impar- 
tially objective  for  her  patriotism,  but  if  so,  there 
is  no  trace  of  such  disagreement  in  Prince  Albert's 
correspondence. 

It  was  fortunate  that  Prussian  opinion  was  at 
this  time  distracted  by  the  thought  of  the  coming 
coronation  of  the  new  King.  The  ceremony  raised 
certain  questions  which,  though  nominally  con- 
cerned with  mere  ceremonial,  possessed  in  reality 
considerable  importance  from  a  constitutional 
point  of  view.  The  principal  question  was 
whether  the  oath  of  allegiance  traditionally  taken 
by  the  estates  of  the  realm  was  consistent  with  the 
new  constitutional  law  desired  by  the  King.  Ap- 
parently the  King  wished  the  oath  to  be  taken,  but 
was  dissuaded  by  his  Ministers,  and  it  was  decided 
that  his  Majesty  should  simply  be  crowned  at 
Konigsberg  in  the  presence  of  the  Landtag. 

In  July,  1861,  the  Crown  Prince,  who  had  gone 
with  the  Crown  Princess  to  pay  a  visit  to  Queen 
Victoria,  wrote  from  Osborne  a  long  and  remark- 
able letter  to  his  father,  a  passage  in  which  shows 
how  constantly  he  consulted  his  wife  on  questions 
of  high  pohtics. 

The  Crown  Prince  begs  the  King  not  to  regard 


140      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  coronation  with  repugnance  on  account  of  the 
omission  of  the  oath  of  allegiance.  He  describes 
the  act  of  assuming  the  crown  as  a  despotic  act, 
and  as  solemn  proof  that  the  crown  is  not  con- 
ferred by  any  earthly  power,  in  spite  of  the  pre- 
rogatives abandoned  in  1848.  He  goes  on  to  argue 
that  the  ceremony  will  compel  the  Great  Powers 
to  show  deference  to  Prussia  by  sending  ambassa- 
dors, and  that  therefore  it  ought  to  take  place  in 
Berlin.  In  this  way  it  would  exhibit  the  develop- 
ment of  Prussia.  Frederick  I,  by  being  crowned 
at  Konigsberg,  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  era 
for  the  State,  but  now  a  coronation  at  Berlin  would 
mark  the  new  future  which  opened  out  for  Prussia 
as  the  defender  of  the  united  German  territories. 
The  Crown  Prince  advised  that  the  Bang  and 
Queen  should  go  to  Konigsberg  before  the  corona- 
tion in  Berlin,  either  to  receive  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance or  to  hold  a  great  reception,  and  then  he 
goes  on: 

**I  have  ventured,  dear  father,  to  express  my 
opinion  quite  frankly,  though  you  may  perhaps  be 
surprised  by  my  strong  inclination  for  the  corona- 
tion ceremony.  The  fact  is  simply  that  I  have 
often  calmly  discussed  this  with  Vicky  as  the  only 
desirable  conclusion,  when  I  saw  the  increasing 
difficulties  arising  in  your  mind  with  reference  to 
the  oath  of  allegiance." 

These  opinions  of  the  Crown  Prince's,  in  which 
his  wife  evidently  concurred,  would  hardly  have 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    141 

been  approved  by  Prince  Albert.  They  show  the 
future  Emperor  Frederick  in  a  new  light — no 
longer  as  the  liberal  constitutionalist,  the  firm  ad- 
mirer of  England's  free  polity,  but  as  the  cham- 
pion of  the  divine  right  of  the  Hohenzollerns,  with 
a  splendid  vision  of  a  united  Germany  under  the 
military  protection  of  Prussia.  At  the  same  time 
there  is  that  qualifying  sentence  in  which  the 
Crown  Prince  refers  to  the  plan  of  a  coronation  at 
Berlin  almost  as  if  he  and  his  wife  had  been  driven 
to  recommend  it  as  the  only  solution  of  the  King's 
difficulties  regarding  the  oath  of  allegiance. 

The  whole  question  becomes  the  more  interest- 
ing in  the  light  of  a  remarkable  piece  of  dynastic 
history  which  was  revealed  for  the  first  time  at  the 
jubilee  celebrations  of  the  Emperor  William  II  in 
June,  1913,  in  an  address  by  Professor  Hintze  at 
the  Berlin  University.  It  seems  that  his  Imj^erial 
Majesty  was  informed,  before  his  father's  death 
in  1888,  that  upon  that  event  a  sealed  document 
of  high  importance  would  be  placed  in  his  hands. 
When  he  read  it,  he  found  that  it  was  the  political 
testament  of  his  great-uncle.  King  Frederick  Wil- 
liam IV  of  Prussia,  brother  of  the  Emperor  who 
made  united  Germany. 

As  its  name  implies,  the  paper  contained  King 
Frederick  Wilham's  advice  to  his  successors  on  the 
Throne  of  Prussia.  Part  at  least  of  these  counsels 
was  deemed  to  be  possibly  so  seductive  to  Sover- 
eigns of  a  certain  temperament  that  the  Emperor 


142      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

William  II  felt  it  his  duty  to  commit  the  whole 
paper  to  the  flames.  The  Royal  testator,  who  in- 
herited from  his  mother,  Queen  Louise,  an  exceed- 
ingly exalted  idea  of  the  rights  of  the  Crown,  rec- 
ommended his  successors  to  revoke  the  written  Con- 
stitution which  he  himself  had  granted  his  people. 
But  he  had  a  high  sense  of  the  obligations  of  his 
kingly  word  and  of  his  Royal  oath,  and  accordingly 
he  advised  any  of  them  who  might  take  the  step  to 
take  it  before  he  had  sworn  to  observe  the  Con- 
stitution at  his  coronation. 

The  Emperors  William  I  and  Frederick  III 
seem  to  have  been  content  with  ignoring  the  testa- 
ment. It  was  left  for  their  successor,  William  II, 
fearful  lest  it  might  one  day  tempt  some  "young 
and  inexperienced  ruler"  into  dangerous  paths,  to 
destroy  it.  His  apprehensions  were  curiously 
strong.  He  felt,  he  told  Professor  Hintz,  as  if  he 
had  a  barrel  of  gunpowder  in  his  house,  and  he 
knew  no  peace  until  he  had  got  rid  of  the  terrible 
document. 

We  need  not  discuss  here  whether  these  appre- 
hensions were  well  founded.  What  is  of  the 
highest  interest  is  the  knowledge,  thus  come  to 
light  after  so  many  years,  of  this  extraordinary 
political  testament.  It  had  unquestionably  been 
read  at  this  time,  July,  1861,  by  the  new  King 
William  I,  and  it  is  equally  certain  that  it  had  not 
then  been  read  by  the  Crown  Prince  and  Crown 
Princess.     Probably  the  knowledge  of  the  docu- 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    143 

ment  would  have  modified  the  views  expressed  in 
the  Crown  Prince's  letter  from  Osborne.  In  any 
case,  it  seems  so  far  to  have  influenced  the  new 
King  that  he  rejected  his  son's  advice  and  adhered 
to  his  decision  in  favour  of  a  coronation  at  Konigs- 
berg,  which  duly  took  place  there  with  all  suitable 
pomp  on  October  18. 

Among  the  very  few  published  letters  of  the 
Crown  Princess  is  one  which  she  wrote  to  her 
mother  describing  the  ceremony.  She  modestly 
declares  herself  "a  very  bad  hand  at  descriptions," 
but  no  one  who  reads  the  letter  now  would  possibly 
agree  with  that.  On  the  contrary,  she  shows  the 
same  remarkably  vivid  and  picturesque  power  of 
narration  of  which  we  had  an  example  in  her  ac- 
count of  the  death-bed  of  King  Frederick  William 
IV. 

The  fact  that  the  day  chosen  for  the  coronation 
was  her  husband's  birthday  gave  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess great  pleasure,  as  also  that  an  English  artist, 
Mr.  George  Housman  Thomas,  was  commissioned 
to  paint  a  picture  entitled  "Homage  of  the  Princess 
Royal  at  the  Coronation  of  the  King  of  Prussia." 

Lord  Clarendon,  who  was  the  British  Special 
Ambassador  on  the  occasion,  writing  to  Queen 
Victoria  on  the  day  after  the  coronation,  observed 
that  "the  great  feature  of  the  ceremony  was  the 
manner  in  which  the  Princess  Royal  did  homage 
to  the  King.  Lord  Clarendon  is  at  a  loss  for 
words  to  describe  to  your  Majesty  the  exquisite 


144      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

grace  and  the  intense  emotion  with  which  her 
Royal  Highness  gave  effect  to  her  feelings  on  the 
occasion.  Many  an  older  as  well  as  younger  man 
than  Lord  Clarendon,  who  had  not  his  interest  in 
the  Princess  Royal,  were  quite  as  unable  as  himself 
to  repress  their  emotion  at  that  which  was  so  touch- 
ing, because  so  unaffected  and  sincere." 

Lord  Granville  also  wrote  to  Prince  Albert, 
"One  of  the  most  graceful  and  touching  sights 
ever  seen  was  the  Princess's  salute  of  the  King." 

Lord  Clarendon  added  in  his  letter  to  the  Queen, 
not  very  prudently:  "If  his  Majesty  had  the 
mind,  the  judgment,  and  the  foresight  of  the  Prin- 
cess Royal,  there  would  be  nothing  to  fear,  and  the 
example  and  influence  of  Prussia  would  soon  be 
marvellously  developed.  Lord  Clarendon  has  had 
the  honour  to  hold  a  very  long  conversation  with 
her  Royal  Highness,  and  has  been  more  than  ever 
astonished  at  the  statesmanlike  and  comprehensive 
views  which  she  takes  of  the  policy  of  Prussia,  both 
internal  and  foreign,  and  of  the  duties  of  a  Consti- 
tutional King." 

Unfortunately,  Prussia  was  far  from  desiring 
the  wife  of  the  Heir  Apparent  to  entertain  any 
views,  statesmanlike  or  other,  on  either  domestic 
or  foreign  policy. 

Lord  Clarendon  also  told  the  Queen  that  the 
Princess  was  appreciated  and  beloved  by  all  classes. 
Every  member  of  the  Royal  Family,  he  said,  had 
spoken  of  her  to  him  in  terms  of  admiration,  and 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    145 

through  various  channels  he  had  had  opportunities 
of  learning  how  strong  was  the  feeling  of  educated 
and  enlightened  people  towards  her. 

There  is  significance  in  the  English  statesman's 
reference  to  "educated  and  enlightened"  people. 
He  must  have  been  aware  that  the  majority  of 
Prussians  of  that  day  were  neither  educated  nor 
enlightened  in  his  sense  of  the  words,  and  that  the 
Princess  was  really  only  appreciated  by  the  small 
intellectual  group  who  were  flattered  by  the  recog- 
nition which  she  and  the  Crown  Prince  bestowed 
on  them.  But  Lord  Clarendon  was  perhaps  dis- 
posed to  see  everything  en  beau,  for  the  Crown 
Princess  mentions  that  the  King  and  Queen  showed 
a  marked  cordiality  to  him,  contrasting  with  the 
stiff  etiquette  observed  in  their  reception  of  the 
other  Ambassadors. 

To  return  to  the  Crown  Princess's  account  of 
the  coronation.  She  contrives  to  give  in  compara- 
tively few  words  an  unforgettable  picture  of  the 
coup  d'oeil  in  the  chapel — the  Knights  of  the  Black 
Eagle  in  their  red  velvet  cloaks,  the  various  colours 
of  the  uniforms,  and  the  diamonds  and  Court 
dresses  of  the  ladies,  all  harmonised  by  the  sun 
pouring  in  through  the  high  windows.  The  Prin- 
cess says  that  she  herself  was  in  gold  with  ermine 
and  white  satin,  while  one  of  her  ladies  wore  blue 
and  the  other  red  velvet.  "Dearest  Fritz  was 
in  a  great  state  of  emotion  and  excitement,  as  we 
all  were."     The   King  looked  so  handsome  and 


146      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

noble  with  the  crown  on,  and  the  moment  when  he 
put  the  crown  on  the  Queen's  head  was  so  touch- 
ing that  there  was  hardly  a  dry  eye  in  the  chapel. 

The  Princess's  keen  sense  of  humour  was  stirred 
by  the  large  assemblage  of  princes  and  other  nota- 
bles. "Half  Europe  is  here,  and  one  sees  the 
funniest  combinations  in  the  world.  It  is  like  a 
happy  family  shut  up  in  a  cage !"  and  she  mentions 
as  an  example  the  Italian  Ambassador  sitting  close 
to  a  Cardinal.  There  is  also  a  young  pruice  of 
Hesse  who  nearly  dies  of  fright  and  shyness  among 
so  many  people;  he  at  once  excites  the  sympathy 
of  the  warm-hearted  Princess,  though  she  herself 
had  no  experience  of  the  agonies  of  shyness. 

But  the  Princess  was  even  more  diverted  by  a 
compliment  which  the  King  paid  her: 

"The  King  gave  me  a  charming  little  locket  for 
his  hair,  and  only  think — ^what  will  sound  most  ex- 
traordinary, absurd,  and  incredible  to  your  ears — 
made  me  second  Chef  of  the  2nd  Regiment  of 
Hussars!  I  laughed  so  much,  because  really  I 
thought  it  was  a  joke — it  seemed  so  strange  for 
ladies;  but  the  Regiments  like  particularly  having 
ladies  for  their  Chefs!  The  Queen  and  the  Queen 
Dowager  have  Regiments,  but  I  believe  I  am  the 
first  Princess  on  whom  such  an  honour  is  con- 
ferred." 

Possibly  the  Princess  thought  at  first  that  she 
was  being  appointed  honorary  cook  to  the  regi- 
ment!    In  any  case  it  is  curious  that  she  should 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    14T 

not  have  known  of  the  custom  of  conferring  such 
distinctions  on  Royal  ladies,  which  obtains  in  the 
British  Army  as  well  as  on  the  Continent. 

We  have  no  means  of  knowing  how  the  Crown 
Prince  and  Crown  Princess  regarded  the  new 
King's  declaration  at  Konigsberg — that  declaration 
which  amounted  to  an  explicit  assertion  of  the  di- 
vine right  of  Kings.  But  in  Queen  Victoria's  Let- 
ters there  is  a  curious  revelation  of  the  anxiety  with 
which  Her  Majesty  regarded  the  constant  attacks 
of  the  Times  on  everything  German,  and  particu- 
larly everything  Prussian.  She  even  wrote  to 
Lord  Palmerston  about  it,  suggesting  that  he 
might  see  his  way  to  remonstrate  with  the  con- 
ductors of  the  journal.  "Pam"  did  see  his  way, 
and  he  got  an  entertaining  answer  from  the  great 
Delane,  then  at  the  zenith  of  his  power,  which  he 
forwarded  to  her  Majesty.  The  editor  says  that 
he  would  not  have  intruded  advice  on  the  Prussians 
during  the  splendid  ceremonies  of  the  coronation 
"had  not  the  King  uttered  those  surprising  anach- 
ronisms upon  the  Divine  Right." 

We  learn  from  a  letter  written  by  Lord  Claren- 
don to  Queen  Victoria  that  the  Crown  Princess 
was  much  alarmed  at  the  state  of  affairs  in  Berlin 
at  this  time.  The  King  saw  democracy  and  revo- 
lution in  every  symptom  of  opposition  to  his  will. 
His  Ministers  were  mere  clerks,  content  to  regis- 
ter his  decrees,  and  there  was  no  one  from  whom  he 
sought  advice,  or  indeed  who  was  capable  or  would 


148      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

have  the  moral  courage  to  give  it.  The  King 
would  never  accept  the  consequences  of  represen- 
tative government  or  allow  it  to  be  a  reality,  though 
at  the  same  time  he  would  always  religiously  keep 
his  word  and  never  overturn  the  institutions  he 
had  sworn  to  maintain.  Such  was  this  experienced 
statesman's  diagnosis  of  the  situation,  arrived  at 
after  an  audience  of  the  Crown  Princess. 

The  Princess  celebrated  her  twenty-first  birth- 
day on  November  21,  1861.  In  the  letter  which 
she  received  from  her  father,  almost  the  last  which 
he  was  ever  to  write  to  her,  one  detects  a  pathetic 
note,  as  if  the  Prince,  wearied  and  out  of  health, 
actually  foresaw  his  approaching  death  and  wished 
to  give  her  his  parting  counsel  and  blessing: 

"May  your  life,  which  has  begun  beautifully, 
expand  still  further  to  the  good  of  others  and  the 
contentment  of  your  own  mind!  True  inward 
happiness  is  to  be  sought  only  in  the  internal  con- 
sciousness of  effort  systematically  directed  to  good 
and  useful  ends.  Success  indeed  depends  upon 
the  blessing  which  the  Most  High  sees  meet  to 
vouchsafe  to  our  endeavours.  May  this  success 
not  fail  you,  and  may  your  outward  life  leave  you 
unhurt  by  the  storms,  to  which  the  sad  heart  so 
often  looks  forward  with  a  shrinking  dread! 
Without  the  basis  of  health  it  is  impossible  to  rear 
anything  stable.  Therefore  see  that  you  spare 
yourself  now,  so  that  at  some  future  time  you 
may  be  able  to  do  more." 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    149 

The  death  of  Prince  Albert  on  December  14, 
1861,  at  the  age  of  forty-two,  profoundly  affected 
the  lives  of  both  his  widow,  on  her  now  lonely 
throne,  and  his  idolized  daughter  in  Berlin.  It  is 
evident  from  Queen  Victoria's  correspondence  that 
she  was  quite  unprepared.  Her  letters  to  Kjng 
Leopold  almost  up  to  the  last  are  full  of  the  most 
pathetic  hopefulness,  and  she  certainly  wrote  in 
the  same  vein  of  cheery  optimism  to  Berlin.  The 
blow  fell  therefore  with  all  the  more  sttmning 
effect  on  both  mother  and  daughter — indeed,  it  is 
hard  to  say  which  of  the  two  felt  more  utterly 
crushed  and  broken-hearted. 

The  Crown  Princess,  as  we  have  seen,  was  much 
more  her  father's  child  than  is  usual  in  family  life 
in  any  station.  The  tie  between  them  was  some- 
thing deeper  and  stronger  even  than  the  natural 
affection  of  parent  and  daughter ;  he  had  sedulously 
formed  her  mind  and  tastes,  and  he  had  become  the 
one  counsellor  to  whom  she  felt  she  could  ever  turn 
in  any  perplexity  or  trouble,  sure  of  his  helpful 
understanding  and  sjTnpathy.  Very  soon  after 
her  marriage,  in  a  letter  to  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
she  dwelt  on  their  father  as  the  master  and  leader 
ever  to  be  respected:  "You  don't  know,"  she 
wrote,  "how  one  longs  for  a  word  from  him  when 
one  is  distant." 

Nor  did  the  Princess,  like  many  daughters,  allow 
her  marriage  to  weaken  this  tie ;  indeed,  the  thought 
of  the  physical  distance  between  them  seemed  to 


150      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

bring  them,  if  possible,  spiritually  nearer.  For  her 
mother,  the  Princess  felt  the  tenderest  and  most 
filial  affection,  writing  to  her  every  day,  sometimes 
twice  a  day,  about  the  little  details  of  her  personal 
life.  But  though  she  and  her  father  only  wrote 
to  one  another  once  a  week,  it  was  to  him  that  she 
poured  out  her  full  self,  the  total  of  her  varied  in- 
terests in  politics,  literature,  science,  art,  and  phi- 
losophy. The  citations  already  made  in  the  pre- 
ceding pages  from  the  Prince's  letters  to  her  show, 
not  only  the  many  fields  over  which  their  corre- 
spondence ranged,  but  also  the  singular  charm  of 
their  mutual  confidence.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
find  in  history  a  more  touching  and  beautiful  ex- 
ample of  spiritual  and  intellectual  communion  be- 
tween father  and  daughter. 

And  now  this  great  solace  and  stay  of  the  Prin- 
cess's life  is  suddenly  withdrawn  from  her,  practi- 
cally without  any  warning.  If  only  she  had 
known,  even  suspected,  that  there  was  danger,  how 
she  would  have  hurried  to  him!  No  one  with  any 
imagination  and  human  sympathy  can  think  of  it 
without  profound  pity. 

During  the  first  weeks  which  followed  the  re- 
ceipt of  the  telegram  announcing  his  death  the 
Crown  Princess  fell  into  a  silent,  listless  state,  only 
rousing  herself  to  bursts  of  grief  which  were  ter- 
rible to  witness.  The  simple  religious  faith  to 
which  her  mother  turned  could  not,  unfortunately, 
bring  her  the  same  consolation.     In  her  extremity 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    151 

it  was  on  her  husband  that  she  leaned.  He  was  un- 
tiringly patient  and  tender,  though  it  must  have 
been  most  painful  for  him  to  be  told  that  she  felt 
as  if  her  life  was  over  and  she  could  never  be  happy 
again. 

It  is  surely  true  to  say  that  in  these  diflScult 
days  the  Crown  Prince  revealed  the  essential  no- 
bility of  his  character  quite  as  much  as  he  did  in  the 
great  spectacular  moments  of  his  life — on  the 
stricken  field  and  in  the  glory  of  conquest.  Many 
a  husband  would  have  shown  a  certain  resentment 
at  his  wife's  absorption  in  her  father,  but  it  is  clear 
that  the  Crown  Prince,  far  from  feeling  any  such 
petty  jealousy,  brought  his  wife  the  truest  consola- 
tion by  understanding  and  himself  sharing  in  her 
sorrow.  He  knew  what  a  really  remarkable  man 
Prince  Albert  was,  he  had  felt  the  charm  of  his 
personality  and  of  his  intellectual  gifts;  and  so  we 
find  him  looking  back  on  this  bereavement,  in  a 
letter  written  some  months  later  to  his  old  tutor, 
M.  Godet: 

"Our  whole  life  is,  if  such  a  thing  be  possible, 
increasing  in  happiness  daily.  All  the  tribulation, 
all  the  bitterness,  of  my  outside  life,  and  of  what 
I  may  call  my  practical  life,  I  am  able  to  leave  be- 
hind me  when  I  reach  the  door  which  leads  to  my 
'home.'  We  had  tjie  great  grief  of  losing  my  dear 
father-in-law,  the  most  intimate  and  tender  friend 
of  my  wife,  and  to  me  a  true  second  father.  It 
came  like  a  clap  of  thunder  on  our  peaceful,  happy 


152      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

life.  We  are  now  deprived  of  him  whom  we  thought 
would  help  to  guide  us  during  many  many  years, 
and  now  the  British  Sovereign  is  bereft  of  her  only 
help,  while  Europe  is  deprived  of  one  of  her  most 
brilhant  and  most  distinguished  minds." 

It  may  reasonably  be  doubted  whether  to  the 
Crown  Princess  the  prolongation  of  her  father's 
life  would  have  been  of  great  service.  We  cannot 
feel  at  all  sure  that  in  her  critical  relations  with 
Bismarck,  for  instance,  his  counsel  would  always 
have  been  of  the  safest  kind.  He  had  not  brought 
her  up  to  be  the  wife  of  an  autocratic  sovereign, 
still  less  that  of  the  wife  of  an  Heir  Apparent ;  she 
was  brought  up  as  might  have  been  a  Prince  of 
Wales  in  a  constitutional  country. 

By  an  unfortunate  irony  of  fate,  all  those  who 
warmly  and  sincerely  sympathised  with  the  point 
of  view  of  the  Prince  Consort,  and  of  herself  and 
the  Crown  Prince,  were  not  Prussians;  they  were 
— in  the  phrase  then  generally  used — Coburgers. 
This  was  pre-eminently  the  case  with  Stockmar, 
and  in  a  less  degree  with  Bunsen  and  other  Liberal 
Germans.  The  mere  fact  that  they  were  not  Prus- 
sians discounted  any  value  their  opinions  might 
otherwise  have  had,  both  with  the  then  King  of 
Prussia  and  with  those  who  surrounded  him. 

Fortunately  for  the  Crown  Princess,  the  course 
of  public  events  soon  came  to  rouse  her  from  her 
apathy  and  grief. 

Early  in  that  same  December  which  saw  the 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    153 

death  of  the  Prince  Consort,  the  Prussian  elections 
had  resulted  in  large  democratic  gains,  thus  con- 
siderably weakening  the  Ministry.  In  a  memo- 
randum addressed  to  the  Crown  Prince  just  before 
he  left  for  England  to  attend  the  funeral  of  his 
father-in-law,  Duncker  prophesied  the  fall  of  the 
Ministry,  and  for  the  first  time  suggested  the  plan 
of  calling  Bismarck  to  office.  In  his  reports  dur- 
ing the  Ministerial  crisis  which  followed,  Duncker 
warned  both  the  Crown  Prince  and  the  Crown 
Princess  of  the  danger  of  trying  to  govern  at  one 
time  with  the  Liberals  and  at  another  with  the 
Conservatives.  He  advocated  a  Ministry  com- 
posed of  business  rather  than  party  men,  who 
would  know  how  to  govern  as  Liberals  on  a  Con- 
servative basis;  and  he  again  urged  that  Bismarck 
should  be  utilised  to  strengthen  the  Ministry. 

The  Crown  Princess  after  her  bereavement 
seemed  to  cling  the  more  closely  to  the  ties  which 
bound  her  to  the  land  of  her  birth  and  of  her  father's 
adoption,  and  this,  as  we  shall  see  later,  provoked 
a  good  deal  of  criticism  in  Berlin.  She  went  to 
England  as  often  as  she  could,  or  perhaps  it  would 
be  truer  to  say  as  often  as  her  father-in-law  could 
be  induced  to  give  his  permission. 

Her  first  visit  after  the  Prince  Consort's  death 
was  in  March,  1862.  Princess  Mary  of  Cambridge 
went  to  Windsor  especially  to  see  her  cousin. 
She  says:  "We  found  her  well,  and  better  in 
spirits  than  we  expected."     But  it  must  have  been 


154      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

a  very  sad  and  mournful  time,  for  the  Queen  was 
"rigid  as  stone,  the  picture  of  desolate  misery"; 
and  everything  reminded  the  Crown  Princess  of 
the  father  she  had  lost. 

In  the  following  May,  the  Crown  Prince,  at  the 
special  request  of  Queen  Victoria^,  represented  his 
father  at  the  Great  Exhibition  of  1862,  but  the 
Crown  Princess,  much  to  her  regret,  could  not  ac- 
company him.  He  had  serv^ed  as  chairman  of  the 
committee  appointed  to  secure  an  adequate  repre- 
sentation of  German  arts  and  industries,  and  had 
thus  greatly  promoted  the  success  of  the  enter- 
prise. 

The  Crown  Princess,  however,  went  to  England 
at  the  end  of  June  to  be  present  at  the  quiet  wed- 
ding of  her  favourite  sister.  Princess  Alice,  to 
Prince  Louis,  afterwards  Grand  Duke  of  Hesse. 
It  was  solemnised  at  Osborne  on  July  1. 

On  August  14,  1862,  a  second  son,  Prince 
Henry,  destined  to  be  Germany's  Sailor  Prince, 
was  born.  The  choice  of  his  name  seems  to  have 
troubled  his  grandmother.  Queen  Augusta.  She 
wrote  to  her  son  from  Baden:  "My  dear  Fritz, 
your  first  letter  moved  me  deeply,  because  of  your 
affectionate  heart,  and  because  of  all  the  partic- 
ulars it  contained  about  our  beloved  Vicky.  I 
certainly  anticipated  that  your  son  would  be  called 
Albert,  for  that  name,  no  matter  whether  it  is  more 
or  less  German,  really  ought  to  be  handed  down  as 
a  legacy  from  the  never-to-be-forgotten  grand- 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    155 

father — and  I  believe  that  Queen  Victoria  ex- 
pected it  too." 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  baby  was  christened 
Albert  William  Henry,  but  probably  what  Queen 
Augusta  meant  was  that  he  ought  to  have  been 
generally  known  as  Prince  Albert  instead  of  Prince 
Henry. 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  the  birth  of 
three  healthy  children,  two  of  whom  were  boys, 
would  have,  at  least  in  a  measure,  disarmed  the 
hostility  with  which  the  Crown  Princess  was  re- 
garded by  a  powerful  section  in  Prussia.  But 
these  people  were  dissatisfied  because  the  arrival 
of  the  children  naturally  strengthened  the  position 
of  the  Princess,  and  they  also  feared  that  the  Princes 
in  the  direct  line  of  succession  to  the  throne  would 
be  brought  up  under  English  rather  than  Prussian 
influence. 

There  was,  it  must  be  admitted,  a  certain  justi- 
fication for  the  belief  that  the  Crown  Princess  had 
never  really  ceased  to  be  an  Englishwoman. 

In  1855  there  had  been  presented  to  Prince  Al- 
bert a  remarkable  young  Englishman  who  was 
destined  to  play  a  considerable  part  in  the  life  of  the 
Crown  Princess.  This  was  Robert  Morier,  al- 
ready well  and  affectionately  known  to  Baron 
Stockmar,  who  even  styled  him  his  "adopted  son." 
It  was  natural  that  Prince  Albert  should  take  a 
warm  interest  in  the  young  man  who  came  to  him 
with  such  credentials — indeed,  Morier  was  quickly 


156      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

made  to  understand  that  the  Prince  wished  him  to 
prepare  himself  in  every  way  for  diplomatic  work 
in  Germany.  And  in  January,  1858,  at  the  time 
of  the  Royal  marriage,  Prince  Albert  did  every- 
thing in  his  power  to  have  Morier  appointed  at- 
tache to  the  British  Embassy  in  Berlin. 

Morier  had  another  good  friend  in  the  Princess 
of  Prussia,  the  Princess  Royal's  mother-in-law. 
She  had  known,  not  only  Morier  but  his  distin- 
guished father,  for  many  years,  and  it  was  her  per- 
sonal wish,  which  she  expressed  to  Lord  Claren- 
don, that  the  young  man  should  be  sent  to  Berlin 
in  order  that  he  might  be  of  use  to  her  son  and  her 
daughter-in-law.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that 
Morier  was  also  on  intimate  terms  with  Ernest  von 
Stockmar,  who  at  the  same  time  was  appointed 
private  secretary  to  the  Princess. 

Morier  obtained  the  appointment,  and  it  was  the 
beginning  of  a  lifelong  intimacy  with  Prince  Fred- 
erick William  and  the  Princess  Royal.  He  be- 
came and  remained  one  of  their  most  trusted 
friends  and  advisers,  a  fact  which  undoubtedly  in- 
jured his  diplomatic  career.  When,  many  years 
later,  it  was  proposed  that  Sir  Robert  Morier,  as  he 
had  then  become,  should  be  appointed  Ambassador 
in  Berhn,  his  name  was  the  only  one  which  was  ab- 
solutely vetoed  by  the  then  all-powerful  Bismarck. 

Probably  because  Morier  had  a  remarkably 
strong  and  original  personality,  he  at  once  aroused 
jealousy,  disHke,  and  suspicion;  he  was  even  said 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    157 

to  influence  the  then  dying  King,  as  afterwards  he 
was  supposed  to  influence  King  William  through 
Queen  Augusta,  and  the  Crown  Prince  through 
the  Crown  Princess. 

When  one  now  reads  the  very  frank  letters  writ- 
ten by  Morier  to  English  relations  and  friends, 
one  cannot  help  feeling  an  uncomfortable  suspi- 
cion that  the  contents  of  some  of  them  may  have 
gone  back  to  Germany,  perhaps  in  exaggerated 
and  distorted  versions,  in  spite  of  the  great  pre- 
cautions taken  to  keep  their  contents  secret.  One 
observation  in  one  of  his  letters  certainly  leaked 
out — ^namely,  that  his  long  experience  of  German 
little  statesmen  had  taught  him  that  "like  certain 
plain  middle-aged  women,  they  delight  in  nothing 
so  much  as  to  talk  with  pretended  indignation  of 
attacks  supposed  to  have  been  made  upon  their 
virtue !"  Such  judgments,  when  barbed  with  a  suf- 
ficient measure  of  truth,  are  apt  to  rankle. 

It  must  not  be  thought  for  a  moment  that  Morier 
was  incorrect  in  his  official  relations  in  Berlin,  but 
his  remarkable  ability  and  strength  of  character 
gave  importance  to  his  known  Liberal  and  Con- 
stitutional sympathies.  Had  he  been  a  diploma- 
tist of  merely  ordinary  qualifications,  there  would 
have  been  hardly  need  to  mention  him  at  all,  but 
as  a  matter  of  fact  he  was  an  important  factor  in 
the  complex  situation  of  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Crown  Princess  at  this  period. 

A  passage  in  Theodor  von  Bernhardi's  diary. 


158      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

written  in  Xovember,  1862,  exhibits  the  feeling  in 
Berlin  aroused  by  the  Crown  Princess's  visits  to 
England : 

"Conversation  with  Frau  Duncker.  I  showed 
myself  very  impatient  and  discontented  over  the 
repeated  long  visits  the  Crown  Princess  made  to 
England.  'She  has  nothing  to  do  there  and  noth- 
ing to  seek,'  I  exclaimed.  Frau  Duncker  replied: 
*The  Crown  Princess  has  her  own  views  and  her 
own  will ;  her  views  and  resolutions  are  very  quickly 
formed — but  when  formed,  there  is  nothing  to  be 
done  against  them.'  Further  conversation  showed 
me  that  the  Crown  Princess  cannot  distinguish  be- 
tween our  Three-thaler  Diets  and  the  English  Par- 
liament; that  she  thinks  everything  here  must  be 
just  as  in  England;  the  Government  must  ever  be 
by  majority,  the  Ministry  always  chosen  by  the 
majority — that  she  tries  to  force  these  views  on 
her  husband,  and  that  Max  Duncker  fights  against 
it  as  much  as  he  can.  Max  Duncker  let  me  see 
that  he  is  ever  trying  to  set  this  young  couple 
by  the  ears;  their  ideas  cannot  be  acted  upon 
here." 

The  formation  in  the  spring  of  a  new  Prussian 
Cabinet  composed  entirely  of  Conservatives  placed 
the  Crown  Prince  in  a  considerable  difficulty,  be- 
cause he  had  openly  given  his  support  to  the  late 
Liberal  Ministry.  Duncker's  advice  to  him  was 
that  he  should  absent  himself  for  a  time,  and  that  he 
should  thereafter  be  present  at  the  Ministerial  coun- 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA     159 

cils  without  himself  taking  part  in  the  discussions. 
This  advice  was  accepted,  and  when  the  Ministry 
endeavoured  to  remove  Duncker  to  an  appointment 
at  Bonn  University,  the  Crown  Prince  prevented 
it  by  emphatically  declaring  that  he  did  not  wish 
to  lose  his  counsellor. 

The  events  which  followed, — the  crisis  on  the 
subject  of  military  reforms,  and  the  accession  of 
Bismarck  to  office, — ^were  regarded  by  the  Crown 
Prince  with  something  like  dismay,  but  he  was 
disarmed  by  the  King's  threats  of  abdication.  The 
Crown  Princess's  secretary,  the  younger  Stockmar, 
in  particular,  strongly  urged  that  the  Crown  Prince 
should  not  intervene,  as  it  was  essential  that  he 
should  preserve  his  position  removed  from  party 
strife. 

The  Crown  Prince  saw  the  wisdom  of  this  ad- 
vice, and  on  October  15,  1862,  he  started  with  his 
wife  on  a  long  visit  to  Italy.  As  the  guests  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  they  joined  the  English  Royal 
Yacht  Osborne  at  Marseilles,  and  went  to  Sicily 
and  the  coast  of  Africa,  including  Tunis,  where 
they  visited  the  Bey  at  his  castle,  and  the  ruins  of 
Carthage.  At  Naples  the  Crown  Princess  en- 
joyed herself  particularly,  sketching  and  taking 
long  walks  and  excursions  in  all  the  delights  of 
incognito.  November  21,  the  Princess's  twenty- 
second  birthday,  was  spent  by  her  in  Rome,  where 
the  party  made  a  long  stay.  After  visiting  other 
Italian  cities,  they  returned  to  BerHn  by  way  of 


160      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Trieste  and  Vienna,  having  been  away  altogether 
rather  more  than  three  months. 

It  was  this  tour  which  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  great  love  for  Italy  and  for  Italian  art  which 
henceforth  was  a  marked  characteristic  of  the 
Crown  Princess. 

In  the  December  of  1862  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  made  a  short  stay  in  Vienna.  The  Ameri- 
can historian,  Motley,  was  visiting  Austria  at  the 
time,  and  it  was  characteristic  of  the  Princess  that 
the  only  person,  outside  the  Imperial  family, 
whom  she  desired  to  see  was  this  brilliant  writer. 
He  gives  a  charming  account  of  the  interview  in  a 
letter  to  his  mother: 

"She  is  rather  petite ^  has  a  fresh  young  face 
with  pretty  features,  fine  teeth,  and  a  frank  and 
agreeable  smile  and  an  interested,  earnest  and  in- 
teUigent  manner.  Nothing  could  be  simpler  or 
more  natural  than  her  style,  which  I  should  say 
was  the  perfection  of  good  breeding." 

The  Crown  Princess  told  Mr.  Motley  that  she 
had  been  reading  Froude  with  great  admiration, 
and  she  was  surprised  to  find  that,  though  Motley 
admired  Froude  and  had  a  high  opinion  of  him 
as  an  historian,  he  had  been  by  no  means  con- 
verted to  Froude's  view  of  Henry  VIII.  "The 
Princess  was  evidently  disposed  to  admire  that 
polygamous  party,  and  was  also  a  great  admirer 
of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  Princess  also  spoke  of 
Carlyle's  Frederick  the  Great,  which  she  had  just 


DEATH  OF  KING  OF  PRUSSIA    161 

read,  but  we  are  not  told  whether  she  agreed  with 
Motley's  view  that  Carlyle  was  a  most  immoral 
writer,  owing  to  his  exaggerated  reverence  for 
brute  force,  so  often  confounded  by  him  with  wis- 
dom and  genius. 


CHAPTER  IX 

FIRST  RELATIONS  WITH  BISMARCK 

After  the  death  of  Prince  Albert,  the  relations 
between  the  Crown  Princess  and  Bismarck  be- 
come of  absorbing  interest  to  the  student  both  of 
politics  and  of  human  nature. 

Bismarck  seems  to  have  first  met  Prince  Albert 
in  the  summer  of  1855,  when  Queen  Victoria  and 
the  Prince  paid  their  state  visit  to  Paris.  In  his 
Reminiscences  J  Bismarck  says  that  in  the  Prince's 
manner  to  him  there  was  a  kind  of  "malevolent 
curiosity,"  and  he  convinced  himself — not  so  much 
at  the  time  as  from  subsequent  events — that  the 
Prince  regarded  him  as  a  reactionary  party  man, 
who  took  up  sides  for  Russia  in  order  to  further  an 
Absolutist  and  "Junker"  policy.  Bismarck  goes 
on  to  say  that  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  this 
view  of  the  Prince's  and  of  the  then  partisans  of 
the  Duke  of  Coburg  descended  to  the  Prince's 
daughter. 

"Even  soon  after  her  arrival  in  Germany,  in 
February,  1858,  I  became  convinced,  through 
members  of  the  Royal  House  and  from  my  own 
observations,  that  the  Princess  was  prejudiced 
against  me  personally.  The  fact  did  not  surprise 
me  so  much  as  the  form  in  which  her  prejudice 

163 


RELATIONS  WITH  BISMARCK    163 

against  me  had  been  expressed  in  the  narrow  fam- 
ily circle — 'she  did  not  trust  me.'  I  was  prepared 
for  antipathy  on  accomit  of  my  alleged  anti-Eng- 
lish feelings  and  by  reason  of  my  refusal  to  obey 
English  influences ;  but,  from  a  conversation  which 
I  had  with  the  Princess  after  the  war  of  1866, 
while  sitting  next  to  her  at  table,  I  was  obliged  to 
conclude  that  she  had  subsequently  allowed  herself 
to  be  influenced  in  her  judgment  of  my  character 
by  further-reaching  calumnies. 

"I  was  ambitious,  she  said,  in  a  half -jesting  tone, 
to  be  a  king  or  at  least  president  of  a  republic.  I 
replied  in  the  same  semi- jocular  tone  that  I  was 
personally  spoilt  for  a  Republican;  that  I  had 
grown  up  in  the  Royalist  traditions  of  the  family, 
and  had  need  of  a  monarchical  institution  for  my 
earthly  well-being:  I  thanked  God,  however,  I  was 
not  destined  to  live  like  a  king,  constantly  on  show, 
but  to  be  until  death  the  king's  faithful  subject. 
I  added  that  no  guarantee  could,  however,  be  given 
that  this  conviction  of  mine  would  be  universally 
inherited,  and  this  not  because  Royalists  would 
give  out,  but  because  perhaps  kings  might.  'Pour 
faire  un  civet,  il  faut  un  lievre,  et  pour  faire  une 
monarchic,  il  faut  un  roi.'  I  could  not  answer  for 
it  that,  for  want  of  such,  the  next  generation  might 
not  be  Republican.  I  further  remarked  that,  in 
thus  expressing  myself,  I  was  not  free  from  anxi- 
ety at  the  idea  of  a  change  in  the  occupancy  of  the 
throne  without  a  transference  of  the  monarchical 


164      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

traditions  to  the  successor.  But  the  Princess 
avoided  every  serious  turn  and  kept  up  the  jocular 
tone,  as  amiable  and  entertaining  as  ever ;  she  rather 
gave  me  the  impression  that  she  wished  to  tease  a 
political  opponent. 

"During  the  first  years  of  my  Ministry,  I  fre- 
quently remarked  in  the  course  of  similar  conversa- 
tion that  the  Princess  took  pleasure  in  provoking 
my  patriotic  susceptibility  by  playful  criticism  of 
persons  and  matters.'* 

In  this  passage  we  have  evidently  a  perfectly 
frank  expression  of  Bismarck's  real  feeling,  and  it 
gives  an  extraordinarily  vivid  picture  of  these  two 
remarkable  personalities,  facing  one  another  with 
watchful,  guarded,  measuring  glance,  like  two 
duellists  awaiting  the  signal  for  combat. 

That  Bismarck  to  a  great  extent  misunderstood 
the  Princess  is  plain  enough,  and  indeed  it  would 
have  been  extraordinary  if  he  had  understood  her, 
so  different  was  she  from  any  normal  type  of! 
German  lady.  But  there  is  abundant  evidence 
that  he  did  not  underrate  her  intellectual  ability, 
though  it  must  have  been  a  perpetual  astonishment 
to  him  to  find  such  mental  powers  in  a  woman, 
and  there  were  even  moments  when  the  aims 
of  the  two,  generally  so  wide  apart,  seemed  actu- 
ally to  converge.  It  is  curious  to  speculate  how 
different  the  course  of  history  might  have  been  if 
the  Princess  had  added  to  her  other  qualities  that 
tact,  prudence,  and  power  of  judging  human  char- 


RELATIONS  WITH  BISMARCK    165 

acter,  which  were  surely  alone  wanting  to  make 
her  one  of  the  most  remarkable  women  who  have 
ever  held  her  exalted  rank. 

The  greatest  injustice  which  Bismarck  did  the 
Princess  lay  in  his  suspicion — to  use  a  mild  term 
— of  her  German  patriotism.  The  Prince  Consort 
had  consistently  pursued  the  ideal  of  a  union  of 
the  German  States  under  the  leadership  of  Prussia 
as  the  champion  of  German  Liberalism.  Such  a 
new-born  Germany  might,  or  might  not,  have  be- 
come the  ally  of  England,  but  the  Prince  Consort 
must  certainly  be  acquitted  of  any  Machiavellian 
designs  for  the  benefit  of  his  adopted  country;  the 
supreme  end  he  had  in  view  was  undoubtedly  the 
happiness  and  greatness  of  Germany,  and  both 
his  wife  and  his  da^ughter  knew  and  shared  his  aims. 

From  1858  to  1861  the  Prince  Consort's  influ- 
ence in  Prussian  politics  may  almost  be  described 
as  paramount;  but  the  happy  relations  between 
England  and  Prussia  were  broken,  partly  by  the 
inability  of  King  William  to  share  the  liberalism 
of  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince  Albert,  which  seemed 
to  him  positively  anti-monarchical,  partly  by  anti- 
Prussian  feeling  in  England,  and  partly  by  the 
claim  of  the  Prussian  Liberals  to  dictate  to  the 
Crown  on  the  question  of  army  reorganisation. 

Prince  Albert  did  not  live  to  see  how  completely 
his  hopes  had  been  shattered,  and  his  premature 
death  deprived  his  daughter  of  his  counsel  at  the 
very  moment  when  Bismarck  came  into  office  in  the 


166     THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

full  tide  of  Russophil  reaction  and  Anglophobia. 

It  is  difficult  to  realise,  in  view  of  later  events, 
how  strong  was  the  distrust  which  Bismarck  in- 
spired at  the  beginning  of  his  accession  to  power. 
It  was  known  that  he  desired  an  alliance  with  Na- 
poleon III,  and  it  was  even  believed  that  he  would 
be  capable  of  ceding  German  territory  to  France. 

The  trend  of  popular  opinion  was  significantly 
shown  on  March  17,  1863,  when  the  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  the  Proclamation  "To  my  People"  was 
celebrated,  and  the  foundation-stone  of  a  memo- 
rial to  Frederick  William  III  was  laid  in  Berlin. 

Nothing  that  the  authorities  could  do  to  give 
distinction  to  the  occasion  was  omitted.  The 
Crown  Prince,  who  had  just  been  appointed  to  a 
high  post  on  the  staff,  commanded  the  military 
parade,  and  was  present  with  his  father  at  the 
festivities  in  honour  of  the  survivors  of  the  War 
of  Liberation  and  the  Knights  of  the  Iron  Cross. 
The  citizens  of  Berlin,  however,  were  conspicuous 
by  their  absence,  and  the  popular  feeling  was  ex- 
pressed by  the  great  writer,  Freytag,  who  said  in 
an  article  in  a  Liberal  newspaper:  "All  good 
Prussians  will  pass  this  day  quietly,  seriously,  and 
will  consider  the  means  by  which  they  may  best 
preserve  the  illustrious  House  of  Hohenzollern  for 
the  future  welfare  of  the  State." 

The  first  real  efforts  made  by  Bismarck  to 
alienate  the  King  from  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  date  from  the  year  1863,  just  when  the 


RELATIONS  WITH  BISMARCK    16T 

Princess  was  beginning  to  recover  her  spirits  and 
normal  state  of  mental  health. 

"Every  kind  of  caliminy  was  spread,"  wrote 
Morier,  "respecting  the  persons  supposed  to  be  the 
Prince's  friends.  Spies  were  placed  over  him  in 
the  shape  of  aides-de-camp  and  chamberlains ;  con- 
versations were  distorted  and  imagined,  till  the 
Dantzig  episode  brought  matters  to  a  climax,  and 
very  nearly  led  to  the  transfer  of  the  Prince  to  a 
fortress." 

This  episode,  a  speech  delivered  by  the  Crown 
Prince  at  Dantzig,  possessed  all  the  importance 
that  Morier  attributes  to  it,  and  it  must  be  admitted 
that  it  was  in  the  circumstances  a  highly  imprudent 
utterance,  for  it  dragged  the  differences  between 
the  Crown  Prince  and  his  father  into  the  light  of 
day. 

The  speech  was  delivered  to  the  municipality 
of  Dantzig  on  June  5,  1863.  In  it  the  Crown 
Prince  referred  to  the  variance  which  had  occurred 
between  the  Government  and  the  people,  by  which 
he  meant  a  new  ordinance  restricting  the  freedom 
of  the  Press.  This  variance,  he  said,  had  occa- 
sioned him  no  small  degree  of  surprise;  and  he 
added : 

"Of  the  proceedings  which  have  brought  it  about 
I  know  nothing.  I  was  absent.  I  have  had  no 
part  in  the  deliberations  which  have  produced  this 
result." 

Although  the  Crown  Prince  went  on  to  pay 


168      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

tribute  to  the  noble  and  fatherly  mtentions  and 
magnanimous  sentiments  of  the  King,  nevertheless 
the  speech  naturally  created  a  great  sensation,  not 
only  in  Germany,  but  in  other  countries  too.  A 
correspondence  followed  between  the  Prince  and 
his  father,  in  which  the  former,  while  asking  par- 
don for  his  action,  offered  to  resign  all  his  offices. 
Bismarck  professes  to  have  himself  succeeded  in 
making  peace  between  the  two,  quoting  to  the  King 
the  text:  "Deal  tenderly  with  the  boy  Absalom," 
and  urging  that  it  was  not  advisable  to  make  his 
Heir  Apparent  a  martyr. 

Bismarck's  own  account  of  the  circumstances 
which  led  up  to  the  speech  is  significant  for  its  em- 
phasis on  the  dates.  He  says  that  the  Royal  ordi- 
nance on  the  subject  of  the  Press  appeared  on  June 
1 ;  that  on  June  2  the  Crown  Princess  followed  the 
Prince  to  Graudenz ;  and  that  on  June  4  the  Prince 
wrote  to  the  King  expressing  disapproval  of  the 
decree,  complaining  that  he  had  not  been  sum- 
moned to  the  councils  in  which  the  step  had  been 
discussed,  and  enlarging  on  his  view  of  his  position 
as  Heir  Apparent.  This  obviously  suggests,  with- 
out exactly  saying  so  in  plain  words,  that  the 
Crown  Prince's  speech  on  June  5  was  inspired  by 
his  wife.  But  behind  both  the  Crown  Prince  and 
the  Crown  Princess,  Bismarck  thought  that  he  de- 
tected the  hand  of  Morier.  And  yet  it  is  on  record 
that  Morier  had  not  seen  the  Crown  Prince  or  had 
any  kind  of  communication  with  him  at  the  time, 


RELATIONS  WITH  BISMARCK    169 

before,  or  after,  the  Dantzig  episode;  in  fact,  it  is 
quite  clear,  from  letters  Morier  wrote  to  Ernest 
von  Stockmar,  that  both  he  and  his  German  cor- 
respondent sincerely  regretted  the  Crown  Prince's 
action. 

The  Crown  Princess,  however,  seemed  doomed 
to  be  associated  with  this  unlucky  speech.  Not 
long  after  the  affair  was  apparently  settled,  a 
remarkable  and  obviously  inspired  statement  ap- 
peared in  the  Times  to  the  following  effect : 

"While  travelling  on  military  duty  the  Prince 
allowed  himself  to  assume  an  attitude  antagonistic 
to  the  policy  of  the  Sovereign,  and  to  call  in  ques- 
tion his  measures.  The  least  that  he  could  do  to 
atone  for  this  grave  offence  was  to  retract  his  state- 
ments. This  the  King  demanded  of  him  by  letter, 
adding  that,  if  he  refused,  he  would  be  deprived  of 
his  honours  and  offices.  The  Prince,  in  concert, 
it  is  said,  with  her  Royal  Highness  the  Princess, 
met  this  demand  with  a  firm  answer.  He  refused 
to  retract  anything,  offered  to  resign  his  honours 
and  commands,  and  craved  leave  to  withdraw  with 
his  wife  and  family  to  some  place  where  he  would 
be  free  from  suspicion  of  the  least  connection  with 
the  affairs  of  State. 

"This  letter  is  described  as  a  remarkable  per- 
formance, and  it  is  added  that  the  Prince  is  to  be 
congratulated  on  having  a  consort  who  not  only 
shares  his  liberal  views,  but  is  also  able  to  render 
him  so  much  assistance  in  a  momentous  and  critical 


ITO      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

juncture.  It  is  not  easy  to  conceive  a  more  diffi- 
cult position  than  that  of  the  princely  pair  placed, 
without  a  single  adviser,  between  a  self-willed 
Sovereign  and  a  mischievous  Cabinet  on  the  one 
hand,  and  an  incensed  people  on  the  other." 

Naturally  this  version  of  the  affair,  with  its  open 
reference  to  the  influence  of  the  Crown  Princess, 
aroused  fresh  excitement.  Ernest  von  Stockmar, 
the  private  secretary  of  the  Crown  Princess,  was 
said  to  have  communicated  the  substance  of  the 
statement  to  the  Times.  Who  really  did  so  has 
never  been  revealed. 

The  unfortunate  Stockmar,  in  any  case,  knew 
nothing  of  the  matter;  he  would  have  given  much 
to  find  out  who  was  responsible.  Indeed,  this  new 
complication  to  an  already  painful  and  suspicious 
affair  so  distressed  Stockmar  that  he  fell  ill,  and 
had  to  resign  his  position  as  secretary  to  the  Crown 
Princess.  This  was  for  her  a  real  misfortune,  as 
even  the  most  spiteful  and  prejudiced  of  her  critics 
could  not  accuse  the  old  Baron's  son  and  pupil  of 
being  anything  but  a  sound  and  patriotic  German. 

Bismarck  was  good  enough  to  accept  the  Crown 
Prince's  assertion  that  the  statement  was  inserted 
in  the  Times  entirely  without  his  cognizance,  and 
he  thought  it  was  inspired  by  Geff cken ;  in  fact,  he 
attributed  it  to  the  same  quarter  to  which,  as 
he  believed,  the  Crown  Prince  owed  the  bent  of  his 
political  views,  namely,  the  school  of  writers  who 
extolled  the  English  constitution  as  a  model  to  be 


RELATIONS  WITH  BISMARCK    171 

imitated  by  other  nations,  without  thoroughly  com- 
prehending it. 

What  wonder,  then,  observed  Bismarck,  that 
the  Crown  Princess  and  her  mother  overlooked 
that  peculiar  character  of  the  Prussian  State  which 
renders  its  administration  by  means  of  shifting 
Parliamentary  groups  a  sheer  impossibility?  The 
party  of  progress  were  then  daily  anticipating  vic- 
tory in  their  struggle  with  prerogative,  and  natu- 
rally took  every  opportunity  to  place  the  situation 
"in  the  light  best  calculated  to  influence  female 
minds." 

In  the  following  August,  Bismarck  says,  the 
Crown  Prince  visited  him  at  Gastein,  and  there, 
"less  under  the  sway  of  English  influences,"  "used 
the  unreserved  language  of  one  who  sees  that  he 
has  done  wrong  and  seeks  to  excuse  himself  on  the 
score  of  the  influences  under  which  he  had  lain." 

This  attitude,  however,  if  it  was  ever  really 
adopted,  was  certainly  short-lived.  A  fresh  difl*er- 
ence  broke  out  between  the  Crown  Prince  and  the 
King  on  the  subject  of  the  former's  attendance  at 
Cabinet  Councils,  a)id  on  this  point  the  Crown 
Prince  undoubtedly  held  firm.  Bismarck  prints 
his  marginal  notes  on  a  memorandum  sent  by  the 
Crown  Prince  to  his  father.  In  these  notes  the 
whole  constitutional  position  of  the  Crown  Prince 
is  discussed,  but  we  are  here  only  concerned  with 
the  following  references  to  the  Crown  Princess: 

"Especially  necessary  is  it  that  the  intermediary 


172      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

advisers,  with  whose  aid  alone  his  Royal  Highness 
can  be  authorised  to  busy  himself  with  the  consid- 
eration of  pending  aifairs  of  State,  should  be  ad- 
herents, not  of  the  Opposition,  but  of  the  Govern- 
ment, or  at  least  impartial  critics  without  intimate 
relations  with  the  Opposition  in  the  Diet  or  the 
Press.  The  question  of  discretion  is  that  which 
presents  most  difficulty,  especially  in  regard  to  our 
foreign  relations,  and  must  continue  to  do  so  until 
his  Royal  Highness,  and  her  Royal  Highness  the 
Crown  Princess,  have  fully  reahsed  that  in  ruling 
Houses  the  nearest  of  kin  may  yet  be  aliens,  and 
of  necessity,  and  as  in  duty  bound,  represent  other 
interests  than  the  Prussian.  It  is  hard  that  a 
frontier  line  should  also  be  the  line  of  demarcation 
between  the  interests  of  mother  and  daughter,  of 
brother  and  sister;  but  to  forget  the  fact  is  always 
perilous  to  the  State." 

In  the  autumn  of  1863  Queen  Victoria  was  stay- 
ing at  Coburg.  She  sent  for  Morier  and  had  a 
long  talk  with  him  on  the  growing  difficulties  which 
seemed  to  encompass  the  Crown  Prince  and  Prin- 
cess. The  fact  that  Morier  ventured  to  hint  that 
any  appearance  of  interference  on  the  part  of  Eng- 
land would  be  very  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of 
their  Royal  Highnesses,  and  that  a  suspicion  that 
the  Crown  Prince  was  being  prompted  from  over 
the  water  would  materially  diminish  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Liberal  party  the  value  of  his  opposition, 
shows  that  there  was  something,  even  then,  to  be 


RELATIONS  WITH  BISMARCK    173 

said  for  the  feeling  which  Bismarck  so  sedulously- 
fostered. 

During  the  summer  of  1863,  the  Crown  Princess 
accompanied  her  husband  on  a  long  tour  of  mili- 
tary inspections  in  the  provinces  of  Prussia  and 
Pomerania,  and  her  Royal  Highness  performed  the 
ceremony  of  naming  a  warship,  the  Vineta,  at 
Dantzig. 

This  tour  caused  a  good  deal  of  discomfort  to 
the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess,  for  in  most  of 
the  towns  they  visited  the  municipal  authorities 
ostentatiously  refrained  from  celebrating  the  occa- 
sion; on  the  other  hand,  the  populace  as  a  rule  re- 
ceived the  Royal  pair  with  abundant  loyalty. 

We  have  a  curious  glimpse  of  the  sort  of  im- 
pression made  in  East  Prussia  by  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess in  a  private  letter  written  by  a  member  of  the 
Progressive  party,  who  afterwards  became  a  confi- 
dential friend  of  the  Crown  Prince.  This  gentle- 
man says  that  everyone  was  pleased  with  the  Crown 
Princess,  for  she  showed  that  she  had  a  mind  of  her 
own.  She  informed  a  certain  official  that  she  read 
the  Volkszeitung,  the  National-zeitung,  and  the 
Times  every  day,  and  that  she  agreed  entirely  with 
those  newspapers — in  the  circumstances  an  amaz- 
ingly imprudent  statement.  It  was,  indeed,  such 
a  shock  to  the  official  that  it  reduced  him  to  blank 
silence. 

The  breach  between  the  Crown  and  Parliament 
was  not  the  only  question  with  which  Prussia  was 


174      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

troubled  at  this  time.  The  summer  of  1863  was 
also  marked  by  the  attempt  of  Austria  to  take  the 
solution  of  the  German  question  into  her  own  hands 
by  initiating  a  scheme  for  reforming  the  Federal 
Constitution. 

The  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  invited  the  Princes 
and  the  free  cities  of  Germany  to  a  conference  at 
Frankfort  to  discuss  the  reorganisation  of  the  Ger- 
manic Confederation.  King  William  was  inclined 
to  accept  this  proposal,  but  Bismarck  held  other 
views;  and  a  further  invitation  from  the  Emperor 
that  the  King  should  send  the  Crown  Prince  to  the 
Congress  of  Princes,  was  also  declined. 

Nevertheless  the  Congress  was  held,  and  there 
was  also  held  a  sort  of  family  gathering  of  what 
Bismarck  would  have  designated  "the  Coburgers" 
at  Coburg.  Queen  Victoria  was  there,  and  in 
August  the  Crown  Princess  joined  her,  quickly  fol- 
lowed by  the  Crovni  Prince. 

Lord  Granville,  who  was  a  close  observer  of  the 
complicated  intrigues  of  the  Congress,  wrote  to 
Lord  Stanley  of  Alderley:  "The  Princess  Royal 
is  very  Prussian  on  this  Confederation  question.'* 

The  Crown  Prince's  views  on  the  subject  were 
expressed  in  a  letter  which  he  sent  to  his  wife's 
uncle,  Duke  Ernest,  early  in  September.  From 
this  letter  it  seems  clear  that,  whereas  at  first  he 
had  been  inclined  to  favour  the  Austrian  move,  he 
altered  his  views  when  Austria  showed  her  hand 
by  demanding  from  the  Congress  a  simple  vote  of 


RELATIONS  WITH  BISMARCK    175 

assent  or  dissent  to  her  project  of  reform.  He 
mentioned  that  he  had  asked  the  King  for  permis- 
sion to  be  absent  from  the  meetings  of  the  Cabinet, 
and  indeed  he  paid  with  his  family  a  long  visit  to 
Italy. 

From  Italy  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  pro- 
ceeded to  England,  and  that,  with  visits  to  Brus- 
sels and  Karlsruhe,  took  up  the  rest  of  the  year. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  thought  that  during 
this  absence  from  Germany  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  ceased  to  take  an  interest  in  politics;  on 
the  contrary,  they  followed  with  the  closest  atten- 
tion, what  was  indeed  a  serious  constitutional  crisis 
in  the  autumn  of  1863. 

In  October,  after  they  had  started  for  Italy, 
the  Crown  Prince  wrote  to  Bismarck: 

"I  hope  that,  to  use  your  own  words,  your  efforts 
in  the  present  difficult  position  of  the  constitu- 
tional life  of  our  country  may  be  successful,  and 
may  accomplish  that  which  you  yourself  describe 
as  the  urgent  and  essential  understanding  with  the 
national  representatives.  I  am  following  the 
course  of  events  with  the  deepest  interest." 

The  constitutional  crisis  turned  on  the  rejection, 
by  the  Upper  House  and  the  Crown,  of  the  Budget 
which  had  been  adopted  by  the  Lower  House. 
The  King,  as  advised  by  Bismarck,  was  for  govern- 
ing without  a  constitution,  but  the  Crown  Prince, 
with  his  strong  predisposition  in  favour  of  the  Eng- 
lish constitutional  system,  which  had  by  this  time 


176      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

been  developed  by  Queen  Victoria,  could  not  help 
regarding  his  father's  attitude  as  jeopardising  the 
security  of  the  Crown. 

The  Crown  Prince's  position  was  particularly 
difficult  because  he  was  appealed  to  by  all  parties 
• — ^by  the  Liberals,  who  looked  forward  to  the  day 
when  he  would  be  King  of  Prussia  as  perhaps  not 
very  far  distant ;  and  by  the  Conservatives,  who  ad- 
jured him  to  support  the  Government  on  dynastic 
grounds. 

Of  the  two  parties,  the  Liberals  appeared  to 
have  the  best  of  it,  for  the  prolonged  absence  of  the 
Crown  Prince  and  Crown  Princess  was  naturally 
interpreted  in  Germany  as  indicating,  if  not  their 
sympathy  with  the  Liberal  party,  at  any  rate  their 
dislike  of  the  existing  Government. 

But  events  were  shaping  themselves  in  such  a 
way  that  the  Dantzig  affair,  with  all  that  had  led 
up  to  it  and  had  followed  it,  was  soon  to  be  forgot- 
ten in  a  crisis  of  much  greater  moment,  and  one 
which  brought  to  the  Crown  Prince  his  baptism  of 
fire. 

It  was  during  the  visit  of  the  Crown  Prince  and 
his  family  to  England  that  King  Frederick  VII  of 
Denmark,  the  last  of  his  dynasty,  died,  and  the 
question  of  the  succession  to  the  Duchies  of  Schles- 
wig-Holstein  immediately  became  acute. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   WAB  OF   THE  DUCHIES 

Palmerston  is  reported  to  have  said  on  one  occa- 
sion, that  there  had  been  only  three  men  in  Europe 
who  really  understood  the  Schleswig-Holstein 
question.  One  of  them  was  himself — and  he  had 
forgotten  it;  the  second  man  was  dead;  and  the 
third  was  in  a  mad-house. 

But  the  members  of  the  Royal  Houses  of  Eng- 
land, Prussia,  and  Denmark  considered  that,  with- 
out being  either  jurists  or  diplomatists  by  profes- 
sion, they  understood  the  question  quite  well  enough 
to  take  different  sides  with  ardent  enthusiasm. 
The  question  came,  in  fact,  like  a  dividing  sword, 
and  not  for  the  first  time  it  brought  war  in  its  train 
between  Prussia  and  Denmark.  The  British 
Royal  family  was  placed  by  its  intimate  ties  with 
both  combatants — the  Prince  of  Wales  had  married 
Princess  Alexandra  of  Denmark  in  March,  1863 — 
in  a  position  of  peculiar  delicacy,  which  was  not 
rendered  easier  by  the  fact  that  public  opinion  in 
England  warmly  espoused  the  cause  of  Denmark. 

If  it  was  not  easy  for  Queen  Victoria  and  her 
advisers  to  steer  a  prudent  course,  the  position  of 
the  Crown  Princess  in  BerUn  was  even  more  diffi- 
cult. She  met  the  crisis  with  her  customary  cour- 
age, and  she  applied  to  its  solution  the  teachings 

177 


178      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

of  that  constitutional  liberalism  which  she  had  im- 
bibed from  her  father. 

The  Princess  felt  very  strongly  that  the  honour 
as  well  as  the  interest  of  Prussia — or  perhaps  one 
should  say  her  interest  as  well  as  her  honour — ^re- 
quired the  nation  to  play  an  unselfish  part,  and  to 
seek  indemnity  in  the  moral  prestige  to  be  derived 
from  the  settlement  of  this  ancient  racial  feud. 
As  future  Queen  of  Prussia,  the  Princess  wished  to 
see  the  interests  of  the  Crown  identified  with  the 
constitutional  rights  of  the  people;  she  desired  tO/ 
see  the  inhabitants  of  the  duchies  once  more  con- 
tented, loyal  subjects  of  Duke  Frederick  of  Schles- 
wig-Holstein.  It  was  not  her  fault,  nor  was  it 
within  her  knowledge,  that  the  solution  which  Bis- 
marck even  then  contemplated,  and  which  he  was 
ultimately  able  to  carry  out,  belonged  to  a  wholly 
different  order  of  ideas. 

It  is  necessary,  in  a  brief  retrospect,  to  show 
how  this  question  of  the  duchies  had  become  like 
an  open  sore,  poisoning  the  relations  between  Den- 
mark and  Prussia.  Perhaps  the  most  fertile  cause 
of  trouble  lay  in  the  fact  that  Schleswig  and  Hol- 
stein,  though  grouped  together  by  historical  cir- 
cumstances, were  each  very  different  in  the  char- 
acter of  its  population  and  their  real  or  supposed 
rights. 

We  need  not  go  back  further  than  1846,  when 
King  Christian  of  Denmark  declared  the  right  of 
the  Crown  to  Schleswig-Holstein.     His  son  and 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  DUCHIES    179 

successor,  Frederick  VII,  on  his  accession  in  Janu- 
ary, 1848,  proclaimed  a  new  constitution  uniting 
the  duchies  more  closely  with  Denmark.  This  step 
caused  an  insurrection  and  the  foundation  of  a  pro- 
visional government.  Prussia  thereupon  came  to 
the  help  of  the  duchies  and  defeated  the  Danes  near 
Dannawerke.  After  a  fruitless  attempt  at  inter- 
vention by  the  Powers,  hostilities  were  renewed, 
and  in  April,  1849,  the  Danes  were  victorious  over 
the  Holsteiners  and  Germans.  There  was  further 
fighting  and  further  diplomacy,  until  in  July, 
1850,  the  integrity  of  Denmark  was  guaranteed 
by  England,  France,  Prussia,  and  Sweden.  This 
was  quickly  followed  by  the  defeat  of  the  Schles- 
wig-Holsteiners  by  the  Danes  at  the  battle  of  Id- 
stedt.  Early  in  the  following  year  the  Stadholders 
of  Schleswig-Holstein  issued  a  proclamation  plac- 
ing the  rights  of  the  country  under  the  protection 
of  the  Germanic  Confederation. 

This  led  to  the  Treaty  of  London  of  1852,  by 
which  the  possession  of  the  duchies  was  assured 
to  Denmark  conditionally  on  the  preservation  of 
their  independence  and  the  rights  of  the  German 
population  in  them.  Now,  Holstein  belonged  to 
the  Germanic  Confederation,  but  the  treaty  stipu- 
lated that  Schleswig  was  not  to  be  separated  from 
Holstein,  though  it  was  a  point  of  honour  with 
Denmark  not  to  give  up  Schleswig. 

The  natural  successor  of  King  Frederick  VII 
in  the  duchies  was  his  kinsman,  Duke  Christian 


180      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

of  Sonderburg-Augustenburg,  who,  in  May,  1852, 
resigned  his  hereditary  claim  in  return  for  a  sum 
of  two  and  a  half  million  thalers.  This  settlement 
might  have  been  excellent  but  for  two  facts — first 
that  it  had  not  received  the  assent  of  the  Germanic 
Confederation;  and  secondly,  that  Duke  Christian's 
two  sons  violently  objected  to  it — indeed,  the  elder 
son,  the  Hereditary  Prince  Frederick,  made  a 
formal  declaration  of  his  rights  of  succession. 
Moreover,  it  must  be  admitted  that  Denmark 
showed  a  cynical  disregard  of  the  conditions  in  the 
Treaty  of  London  respecting  the  independence  of 
the  duchies  and  the  rights  of  their  German  popula- 
tion. The  Schleswig  Assembly  complained  and 
protested,  and  even  petitioned  the  Prussian  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies,  who  actually  promised  aid  to  the 
duchies. 

At  last  the  crisis  came  in  March,  1863,  when 
the  King  of  Denmark  granted  to  Holstein  a  new 
and  independent  constitution,  but  annexed  Schles- 
wig which  did  not  belong  to  the  Germanic  Con- 
federation. Thereupon  the  Confederation  invited 
Denmark  to  withdraw  this  constitution.  So  far 
from  doing  so,  however,  the  Danish  Parliament 
proceeded  to  ratify  it  only  two  days  before  the 
death  of  King  Frederick  VII,  whose  successor. 
King  Christian  IX,  was  forced  on  his  accession, 
owing  to  a  menacing  uprising  of  popular  feeling 
in  Denmark,  to  sign  the  new  constitution  annexing 
Schleswig. 


HER  ROYAL  HIGHNESS 
PRINCESS  FREDERICK  WILLIAM  OF  PRUSSIA 

MARRIED  JANUARY  25.  1858 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  DUCHIES    181 

The  glove  was  thus  thrown  down  for  Germany 
to  pick  up;  the  Hereditary  Prince  Frederick  as- 
sumed by  proclamation  the  government  of  the 
duchies,  and  appealed  to  the  Germanic  Confedera- 
tion for  the  support  of  his  rights.  The  majority 
of  the  German  Governments  sided  with  him, 
especially  the  Grand  Duke  Frederick  of  Baden, 
brother-in-law  of  the  Crown  Prince;  while  the 
Lower  House  in  Prussia  declared  by  a  large  ma- 
jority that  the  honour  and  interest  of  Germany 
demanded  the  recognition  and  active  support  of  the 
Hereditary  Prince.  It  will  be  evident  from  what 
has  been  said  above  that  Prussia  had  plausible  and 
even  sound  reasons  for  her  intervention,  the  chief 
of  which  was  the  popular  feehng  prevailing  in 
Schleswig. 

Now,  it  so  happened  that  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  had  a  strong  personal  as  well  as  pohtical 
interest  in  the  question  of  duchies.  The  Crown 
Prince  and  the  Hereditary  Prince  Frederick  were 
old  friends.  They  had  first  met  as  fellow-students 
at  the  University  of  Bonn.  The  Hereditary 
Prince  had  afterwards  served  in  the  First  Regi- 
ment of  the  Prussian  Guards,  he  had  been  often  at 
the  Prussian  Court,  and  the  Crown  Prince  was  the 
godfather  of  one  of  his  children.  Naturally,  there- 
fore, the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  were  favour- 
able to  his  claims. 

There  is  now  no  doubt  that  Bismarck  had  some 
time  before  resolved  in  principle  on  the  annexation 


182      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

of  the  duchies,  but  of  course  he  did  not  show  his 
hand  until  it  suited  him,  and  above  all  he  studiously 
concealed  his  plans  from  the  Crown  Prince.  In- 
deed, the  Crown  Prince's  personal  relations  with 
Bismarck  were  at  this  time  practically  suspended, 
if  only  because  he  happened  at  the  time  to  be  in 
England,  where,  however,  the  prevailing  sympathy 
\^dth  Denmark  did  not  influence  him  or  the  Crown 
Princess.  In  a  letter  written  to  Duncker  from 
Windsor  in  December  the  Prince  says  that  he 
has  "daily  defended  the  cause  of  my  dear  friend 
Duke  Frederick,  well  backed  up  by  my  wife,  who 
exhibits  warm  and  absolutely  German  feelings  in 
a  most  moving  degree." 

The  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  would  certainly 
have  recoiled  with  horror  from  Bismarck's  secret 
design  of  annexing  the  duchies.  How  little  they 
understood  the  Minister's  plans  is  curiously  shown 
in  the  letter  of  the  Crown  Prince  just  referred  to. 
He  took  the  view  that  Prussia  ought  at  once  to 
occupy  the  duchies  in  order  to  establish  the  Hered- 
itary Prince  there.  Bismarck,  he  says,  hated  the 
Augustenburg  family  and  considered  the  national 
aspirations  of  Germany  as  revolutionary,  desiring 
on  the  contrary  to  maintain  the  Treaty  of  London 
and  strengthen  Denmark.  The  Crown  Prince  in 
fact  thought  that  Bismarck  had  been  too  late,  and 
that  his  policy  was  opposed  to  the  proper  assertion 
of  Prussia's  position. 

Events   now  moved   fast.     The  troops   of  the 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  DUCHIES    183 

Germanic  Confederation  expelled  the  Danish 
troops  from  Holstein,  and  the  Hereditary  Prince 
was  proclaimed  throughout  the  duchy.  The  Au- 
gustenburg  party,  who  were  aware  of  the  hostility 
of  Bismarck  to  their  candidate,  endeavoured  to  win 
over  the  King  of  Prussia  through  the  medium  of 
the  Crown  Prince;  but  ultimately,  aided  no  doubt 
by  certain  imprudences  on  the  part  of  the  Hered- 
itary Prince,  Bismarck  had  his  way.  Both  Austria 
and  Prussia  separated  from  the  majority  of  the 
Diet,  demanding  that  the  King  of  Denmark  should 
annul  the  new  constitution  annexing  Schleswig,  al- 
ready mentioned,  and  announced  that  they  would 
jointly  manage  the  affairs  of  the  two  duchies. 

In  January,  1864!,  Austria  and  Prussia  issued 
an  ultimatum  to  Denmark,  and  in  February  began 
the  war,  which  was  somewhat  euphemistically  de- 
scribed as  "undertaken  by  Austria  and  Prussia  to 
protect  the  ancient  rights  of  the  German  province 
of  Schleswig-Holstein,  in  danger  of  extinction 
from  Denmark." 

It  was  considered  essential  in  Berlin  that  a  Prus- 
sian officer  should  be  in  command  of  the  allied 
troops,  and  this  could  only  be  effected  by  calling 
on  the  venerable  Field-Marshal  von  Wrangel,  as 
he  alone  was  of  superior  rank  to  the  officer  at  the 
head  of  the  Austrian  forces. 

Von  Wrangel,  therefore,  although  he  was  much 
too  old  and  eccentric  for  such  responsibility,  took 
the  supreme  command  in  right  of  his  rank,  but  the 


184      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Crown  Prince  was  attached  to  his  staff,  with 
the  understanding  that  he  was  to  prevent  the  aged 
Field-Marshal  from  coming  to  any  unfortunate 
decisions.  Events  showed  that  this  was  extremely 
necessary — indeed,  nothing  could  have  been  more 
useful  than  the  Crown  Prince's  tact  in  dealing  with 
the  rivalries  among  the  divisional  commanders,  and 
also  in  altering  the  extraordinary,  and  sometimes 
positively  insane,  orders  given  by  von  Wrangel 
himself.  As  a  rule  the  Crown  Prince  was  able  to 
persuade  the  old  man  to  make  the  necessary  alter- 
ations, but  there  were  occasions  on  which  he  was 
compelled,  on  his  own  responsibility,  either  to  sup- 
press an  order  altogether  or  in  some  other  way  to 
prevent  it  from  being  carried  out. 

The  Enghsh  Royal  family  were  deeply  divided 
in  their  sympathies  in  this  war,  but  the  Crown 
Princess,  as  her  husband  had  written  to  Duncker, 
was  wholly  German  in  her  feelings.  She  wrote 
to  her  uncle  in  Coburn:  "For  the  first  time 
in  my  life  I  regret  not  being  a  young  man  and  not 
to  be  able  to  take  the  field  against  the  Danes,"  and 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  her  influence 
which  decided  Queen  Victoria  to  restrain  the  belli- 
cose Palmerston,  who  would  have  liked  England 
to  support  Denmark  by  force  of  arms. 

In  these  circumstances  it  seems  all  the  more 
monstrous  that  Bismarck's  friends  actually  charged 
the  Crown  Princess  with  betraying  the  secrets  of 
the  Prussian  Government  to  the  English  Ministers. 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  DUCHIES    185 

Her  complaints  to  the  King  only  received  as  an- 
swer that  the  whole  thing  was  nonsense,  and  that 
she  should  not  treat  it  seriously.  But  the  fact  that 
the  slanderers  were  never  punished  caused  these 
calumnies  to  be  long  repeated,  and  even  in  part  be- 
lieved. 

By  the  side  of  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess 
there  stood,  in  Bismarck's  estimation,  Queen  Au- 
gusta, who  had  ever  been  the  energetic  champion 
of  the  Coburg  doctrine  of  a  liberated  and  united 
Germany  under  the  leadership  of  Prussia.  In  his 
profound  disbelief  in  Liberahsm,  Bismarck  played 
the  obvious  game  of  raising  the  cry  of  foreign  dic- 
tation. By  means  of  his  instruments  in  the  Press 
and  elsewhere,  he  set  himself  to  exhibit  England 
as  at  all  times  seeking  to  influence  Germany  for 
her  own  ends  and  often  against  German  interests, 
for  promoting  her  own  security  and  the  extension 
of  her  power,  "lately  through  women,  daughters 
and  friends  of  Queen  Victoria." 

This  campaign  was  only  too  successful,  and  it 
must  soon  have  become  obvious,  both  to  Queen 
Victoria  and  to  her  daughter,  that  the  unification 
of  Germany  by  means  of  Prussian  Liberalism  was 
not  in  the  range  of  practical  politics.  At  the 
same  time  Bismarck  risked  a  great  deal.  Nothing 
would  have  more  completely  upset  his  plans  than 
a  war  with  England  over  the  duchies,  and,  as  we 
have  said,  he  was  saved  from  that  danger  largely 
owing  to  the  fact  that  Queen  Victoria  was  influ- 


186      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

enced  by  the  Crown  Princess  to  withstand  the 
chauvinism  of  her  Ministers. 

Throughout  the  campaign  of  1864,  the  Crown 
Prince  won  the  deep  affection  of  the  troops,  not 
only  by  himself  sharing  their  hardships,  but  also 
by  his  constant  kindness  and  care  for  their  comfort. 
Though  he  showed  himself  a  true  soldier  and  even 
a  strategist  of  no  small  ability,  the  Crown  Prince 
had  no  illusions  about  the  horrors  of  war,  which 
he  now  saw  for  the  first  time.  He  was  deeply 
moved  by  the  terrible  sights  he  witnessed  on  the 
field  of  battle  and  in  the  hospitals.  After  the  vic- 
tory at  Diippel  in  April,  he  would  have  been  glad 
if  an  armistice  had  been  concluded,  and  he  v^rote 
to  Duncker:  "You  will  understand  how  heavily 
my  long  absence  weighs  on  me,  for  you  know  what 
a  happy  home  I  have  waiting  for  me." 

He  had  not  long  to  wait,  however,  for  on  May 
18  the  supreme  command  was  transferred  from 
Field-Marshal  von  Wrangel  to  Prince  Frederick 
Charles,  the  "Red  Prince,"  and  so  the  Crown 
Prince's  mission  came  to  an  end.  He  joined  the 
Crown  Princess  at  Hamburg.  She  had  originally 
meant  to  proceed  as  far  as  Schleswig  in  order  to  do 
what  she  could  for  the  wounded  in  the  hospitals, 
but,  in  obedience  to  urgent  advice,  she  did  not  go 
further  than  Hamburg.  The  Crown  Prince's 
journey  thither,  covered  with  all  the  laurels  of  suc- 
cessful warfare,  was  a  triumphal  progress. 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  DUCHIES    187 

As  this  campaign  was  the  Crown  Prince's  bap- 
tism of  fire,  so  to  the  Crown  Princess  it  was  a 
revelation  and  a  call  to  action.  On  the  occasion 
of  the  King  of  Prussia's  birthday  in  March,  the 
Crown  Prince  and  Princess  had  presented  him 
with  a  sum  of  money  as  the  nucleus  of  a  fund  for 
helping  the  families  of  soldiers  who  had  fallen  or 
been  disabled  in  war,  and  on  the  eve  of  the  battle 
of  Diippel  the  Crown  Prince  drew  up  an  appeal  on 
behalf  of  this  institution,  which  afterwards  bore  his 
name. 

But  the  war  with  Denmark  revealed  an  even 
greater  need  than  that  of  the  care  of  the  soldiers' 
wives  and  families.  The  Crown  Princess  saw  with 
surprise  and  horror  that  the  medical  service  of  the 
troops  in  the  field  was  practically  non-existent. 
She  remembered  the  achievements  of  Florence 
Nightingale  in  the  Crimean  War,  and,  though  she 
was  at  the  time  herself  more  or  less  disabled,  she 
undertook  the  heavy  task  of  organising  some  sort 
of  an  army  nursing  corps.  For  this  work,  so  ap- 
propriate for  a  soldier's  wife,  she  was  admirably 
fitted.  Indeed,  the  War  of  the  Duchies  gave  the 
Princess  for  the  first  time  real  scope  for  the  exer- 
cise of  her  remarkable  powers  of  organisation. 

The  Crown  Princess,  however,  does  not  seem  to 
have  grown  more  prudent  as  time  went  on.  There 
is  a  curious  revelation  in  Bernhardi's  diary  in  May, 
1864,  of  her  unfortunate  habit  of  praising  England 


188      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

to  the  disadvantage  of  Prussia.  Says  Bernhardi: 
"After  dinner  conversation  with  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess. She  asked  after  England;  supposed  that  I 
had  enjoyed  England  very  much;  once  there,  one 
always  longed  to  go  back.  I  said:  'Yes,  life  is 
full  in  England.'  She  said  with  a  very  peculiar 
expression :  *  Yes,  one  misses  that  here.'  I  thought 
to  myself,  however,  that  only  the  material  interests 
are  greater  and  more  far-reaching  than  with  us; 
in  many  way^  life  is  richer  here  than  there." 

Fighting,  with  intervals  of  diplomatic  action, 
went  on  after  the  Crown  Prince's  return  from  the 
front,  until  peace  was  signed  at  Vienna  on  October 
30.  By  this  instrument  the  King  of  Denmark  sur- 
rendered the  duchies  to  the  allies,  and  agreed  to  a 
rectification  of  the  frontier  and  the  payment  of  a 
considera;ble  war  indemnity;.  It  was  understood 
that  Schleswig  and  Holstein  were  to  be  made  inde- 
pendent, but  differences  of  opinion  arose  between 
Austria  and  Prussia  on  this  point,  which  led  ulti- 
mately to  the  dissolution  of  the  Germanic  Confed- 
eration and  the  Austro-Prussian  war  of  1866. 

Delightful  glimpses  of  the  family  life  led  in  the 
summer  of  1864  by  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess, 
and  of  her  musical,  literary,  and  artistic  tastes,  are 
given  in  letters  written  by  Gustav  Putlitz,  the 
dramatist,  to  his  wife.  Putlitz  was  at  this  time 
chamberlain  to  the  Crown  Princess.  His  letters 
are  too  long  and  detailed  to  be  quoted  in  full,  but 
the  following  extracts  will  give  a  good  idea  of  how 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  DUCHIES    189 

deeply  impressed  this  distinguished  writer  was  with 
the  vivid,  eager  personality  of  the  Princess: 

"June  26. — I  passed  a  most  delightful  hour  yes- 
terday in  this  way.  As  I  was  going  through  the 
drawing-room,  I  found  the  Crown  Princess  with 
Countess  Hedwig  Briihl,  the  former  looking  for 
the  words  of  a  song  of  Goethe's,  which  she  remem- 
bered in  part,  while  Hedwig  played  the  air.  I 
found  the  song  in  Goethe  for  them.  Thereupon  we 
had  a  most  interesting  conversation  about  books. 
The  Crown  Princess  is  wonderfully  well  read;  she 
has  absolutely  read  everything,  and  knows  it  all 
more  or  less  by  heart.  She  showed  us  a  reproduc- 
tion of  a  drawing  she  had  done  in  aid  of  the  Crown 
Prince's  Fund.  It  is  a  memorial  of  the  victory  at 
Diippel,  and  represents  four  soldiers,  each  belong- 
ing to  a  different  arm  of  the  service.  The  first  is 
shown  before  the  attack  in  the  morning;  the  second 
is  waving  the  flag  at  noon;  the  third,  woimded,  is 
listening  to  a  hymn  in  the  afternoon;  while  the 
fourth,  victorious  with  a  laurel  wreath,  stands  in 
the  evening  at  an  open  grave.  The  last  is  ex- 
tremely natural  and  impressive,  without  any 
sentimentality.  The  conception  shows  real 
genius,  and  it  is  carried  out  most  artistically. 
This  youthful  princess  is  more  cultivated  than  any 
other  woman  I  know  of  her  age,  and  she  has  such 
charming  manners,  which  put  people  entirely  at 
their  ease  in  spite  of  etiquette.  She  is  not  allowed 
to  ride,  and  so  she  is  accustomed  to  drive  out  daily 


190      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

for  several  hours,  and  practises  pistol-shooting. 
In  fact  she  possesses  a  wonderful  mental  and  phys- 
ical energy." 

''June  27  (after  dinner). — This  morning  the 
Crown  Princess  sent  for  me  in  the  garden.  I  do 
not  know  what  she  is  not  devoted  to — art,  music, 
literature,  the  army,  the  navy,  hunting,  riding.  On 
leaving  she  went  down  the  mountain  on  foot,  and 
I  went  with  her  through  woods  soaked  with  rain. 
She  took  out  of  her  pocket  the  last  issue  of  the 
Grenzhoten,  and  gave  it  to  me.  It  is  amazing  that 
she  remembers  everything  she  reads,  and  she  de- 
bates history  like  a  historian,  with  admirable  judg- 
ment and  firmness.  After  dinner  she  sang  Eng- 
lish and  Spanish  songs  with  a  charming  voice  and 
correct  expression." 

"Jtme  29. — ^After  breakfast  we  went  for  a  four 
hours'  drive.  The  Crown  Princess  wanted  every 
variety  of  wild  flower  we  could  find,  and  she  knew 
the  Latin,  English,  and  German  names  of  each 
kind.  Every  time  we  stopped  she  got  out  of  the 
carriage  and  picked  a  flower  which  her  sharp  eye 
had  detected,  and  which  was  not  in  the  bouquet." 

The  party  moved  to  Stettin,  and  Putlitz  de- 
scribes how  the  Crown  Princess  beguiled  the  jour- 
ney with  a  constant  stream  of  brilliant  conversa- 
tion on  politics,  literature,  and  art,  as  well  as  on 
more  frivolous  subjects. 

When  they  arrived  at  headquarters  and  found 
the  Crown  Prince,  she  saw  that  everything  was 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  DUCHIES    191 

in  disorder,  and  immediately,  with  characteristic 
energy,  she  began  directing  the  rearrangement  of 
furniture  and  the  hanging  of  pictures.  She  her- 
self was  going  on  to  Potsdam,  but  she  was  deter- 
mined that  her  husband  should  be  as  comfortable 
as  possible  at  Stettin.     Says  Putlitz: 

"Furniture  was  put  in  its  place,  pictures  were 
hung,  wall-paper  selected — all  the  things  having 
been  brought  from  Berlin.  Afterwards  we  went 
all  over  the  house  with  the  architect,  and  the  Crown 
Princess  issued  her  orders  in  the  most  practical 
and  business-like  way.  Then  we  drove  out  and 
bought  more  furniture,  and  the  things  required 
for  the  Prince's  washstand  and  writing-table.  All 
the  things  were  suitable,  and  chosen  with  care. 
We  had  an  interesting  conversation  about  Eng- 
lish literature  and  drama.  I  am  kept  in  perpetual 
astonishment  by  her  natural  behaviour,  so  many- 
sided,  and  full  of  judgment  and  sense." 

When  they  arrived  at  the  New  Palace,  Putlitz 
happened  to  say  that  he  had  never  seen  more  of 
it  than  the  room  where  people  wrote  their  names 
in  the  visitors'  book.  At  once  the  Princess  showed 
him  all  over  it. 

He  draws  a  charming  picture  of  a  tea-party  at 
the  Palace.  The  young  mistress,  wearing  a  sim- 
ple black  woollen  dress,  sat  at  a  spinning-wheel, 
and  as  she  span  she  sang  snatches  of  all  kinds  of 
songs,  accompanied  by  one  of  her  ladies.  Not 
far    off,    a    chamberlain    was    reading   poems    by 


192      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Geibel,  or  prompting  others  by  Goethe  and  Heine 
which  were  recited  by  the  Princess. 

Putlitz  cannot  help  recalling  historical  memories 
of  the  palace  which  was  built  by  Frederick  the 
Great  in  ridicule  of  Austria  and  France;  which 
had  seen  the  curious  entertainments  of  his  succes- 
sor; had  been  decorated  by  Frederick  William  III 
in  the  stiff  fashion  of  his  day;  had  been  opened  by 
Frederick  William  IV  to  an  intellectual  and  artis- 
tic audience  at  representations  of  Antigone  and  A 
Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream;  "and  was  now  the 
home  of  modern  cultivation  freed  from  formality." 

The  Princess,  indeed,  wanted  a  sort  of  history 
of  the  New  Palace  to  be  written,  and  she  consulted 
Putlitz  about  it.  A  few  days  later  they  discussed 
Frederick  William  III  and  Queen  Louise,  how 
the  latter  was  always  idealised,  and  how  the  former 
had  become  popular  in  spite  of  his  roughness. 

In  his  delightful  book.  My  Remimscences,  Lord 
Ronald  Gower  gives  a  most  interesting  account 
of  a  visit  which  he  paid  in  this  summer  of  1864  to 
the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess,  "two  of  the  kind- 
est and  most  amiable  of  Royalties,"  as  he  calls 
them.  They  met  Lord  Ronald  and  his  mother  at 
the  station,  in  defiance  of  Royal  etiquette,  and  took 
them  off  to  the  New  Palace: 

"We  dined  at  two  p.  m.  and  we  had  to  dress  in 
our  evening  things  for  this  repast.  It  took  place 
upstairs  in  a  corner  room,  with  the  walls  of  blue 
silk,  fringed  with  gold  lace.     The  Princess  very 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  DUCHIES    193 

smalrt,  in  a  magenta-coloured  gown  with  pearls 
and  lace.  The  Crown  Prince  in  his  plain  uniform, 
with  only  a  star  or  two,  which  he  always  wears. 
'It  is  a  custom,'  he  said,  'and  looks  so  very  offi- 
cered.' After  dinner  we  went  to  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess's sitting-room;  the  furniture  there  is  covered 
with  Gobelins  tapestry. — a  gift  of  the  Empress 
Eugenie." 

Here  Lord  Ronald  found  some  of  the  Princess's 
own  paintings,  including  those  lately  finished, 
representing  Prussian  soldiers,  his  account  of  which 
it  may  be  interesting  to  compare  with  that  of  Put- 
litz: 

"One  of  these  paintings  was  of  a  warrior  hold- 
ing a  flag,  inscribed  Es  lebe  der  Konig.  The 
second  a  soldier  looking  upward.  He  has  been 
wounded,  and  he  wears  a  bandage  across  his  brow; 
a  sunset  sky  for  a  background.  This  is  inscribed 
Nim  danket  alle  Gott.  The  third  is  another  sol- 
dier looking  down  on  a  newly-made  grave.  Of 
these  three  I  thought  the  second  by  far  the  best. 
There  was  another  painting,  also  by  the  Princess, 
representiag  the  Entombment." 

The  visitors  were  taken  out  driving:  "We 
could  judge  of  the  popularity  of  our  hosts,  for 
everyone  that  we  passed  stopped  to  bow  to  them, 
and  those  who  were  in  carriages  stood  up  in  them 
to  salute  as  the  Prince  and  Princess  passed  by." 

The  arrangements  about  meals  seem  extraor- 
dinary to  modern  taste.     Lord  Ronald  says: 


1^4      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

"Tea  was  served  at  ten  in  the  evening  in  one  of 
the  rooms  on  the  ground  floor  of  the  Palace.  They 
call  it  the  Apollo  Room,  I  believe.  It  was  a  curi- 
ous meal,  beginning  with  tea  and  cake,  followed 
by  meat,  veal,  and  jellies,  and  two  plates  of  sour 
cream.  For  this  repast  one  was  not  expected  to 
don  one's  evening  apparel  a  second  time." 

The  visitors  breakfasted  upstairs  with  the  Crown 
Prince  and  Princess  and  their  children,  in  a  room 
lined  with  pale  blue  silk  framed  in  silver — ^not, 
perhaps,  the  best  possible  background  for  "the 
Princess  in  her  favourite  pink-coloured  dress." 
Then,  "the  Princess  showed  us  her  private  garden, 
and  here  she  picked  a  clove,  which  she  gave  me 
with  her  own  little  hand." 

Lord  Ronald  mentions  the  children  with  ap- 
proval, but  Putlitz,  whose  visit  was  much  longer, 
got  to  know  them  really  well: 

''July  2. — The  Royal  children  are  very  charm- 
ing and  well  trained.  The  Crown  Princess  is  strict 
with  them,  which  is  very  praiseworthy  in  so  young 
a  mother,  who  is  relieved  by  her  rank  of  the  duty 
of  taking  an  active  part  in  their  education,  for 
which  she  has  not  the  time.  People  will  indeed 
be  surprised  at  this  talented  and  cultured  nature, 
when  once  her  will  has  full  scope." 

The  children  on  their  side  seem  to  have  taken 
to  Putlitz  with  enthusiasm.  He  gave  the  boys 
rides  on  his  head,  and  he  records  with  pride  that 
"they  came  running  from  quite  a  long  way  off 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  DUCHIES     195 

when  they  caught  sight  of  me."  He  also  records 
an  accident — little  Prince  William  being  thrown 
from  his  pony — ^which  must  have  reminded  the 
mother  of  that  day  at  Windsor  when  she  was  so 
distressed  at  a  similar  though  more  dangerous  mis- 
hap to  her  brother,  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

One  morning  after  breakfast,  says  Putlitz,  he 
met  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  on  the  terrace, 
"both  full  of  almost  infantile  gaiety."  Soon  after- 
wards the  children  appeared.  Prince  William 
was  riding  his  pony,  when  his  hat  fell  oif  and  hit 
the  pony  between  its  ears;  the  animal  reared,  and 
the  Prince  was  thrown  oif  on  his  back.  Both  par- 
ents remained  quite  calm,  and  apparently  took  no 
notice;  whereupon  the  Prince  mounted  again  and 
went  on  riding.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  the 
mother's  pang  of  terror  beneath  that  outward 
calmness.  Well  may  Putlitz  praise  the  sensible 
upbringing  of  the  children,  which  made  them  per- 
fectly natural,  well-behaved,  and  obedient. 

But  it  is  the  remarkable  personality  of  the  Crown 
Princess  which  chiefly  interests  this  literary  man 
turned  courtier.  One  moment  she  is  instructing 
him  to  write  to  a  poet  and  thank  him  for  a  copy 
of  verses ;  at  another  she  is  arranging  a  picnic  party 
in  her  own  little  garden  near  the  Palace.  Some- 
one, generally  Putlitz  himself,  reads  aloud  after 
tea,  and  if  the  poem  or  story  is  pathetic  the  Crown 
Princess  is  moved  to  tears.  At  other  times  they 
have  music,  generally  glees,  followed  by  good  talk 


196      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

on  literature  or  on  contemporary  polities  and  per- 
sonages, about  whom  both  the  Crown  Prince  and 
the  Princess  speak  with  a  candour  which  astonishes 
Putlitz.  He  cannot  praise  enough  this  delight- 
fully informal,  unaffected,  and  yet  exquisitely 
cultivated  and  intellectual  family  life: 

"Here  one  feels  absolutely  secure  from  intrigue, 
and  only  meets  with  frankness  and  clear  intelli- 
gence. All  evil  designs  must  necessarily  fail  in 
the  end  before  such  qualities/* 

The  dramatist  felt  also  the  great  charm  of  the 
Crown  Prince's  personality.  He  says  that  the  two 
natures  of  husband  and  wife  are  each  a  perfect 
complement  of  the  other,  and  each  exercises  on  the 
other  an  unmistakably  happy  influence.  It  is  at 
the  same  time  significant  that,  while  emphasizing 
the  perfect  harmony  of  the  marriage,  he  does  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  the  Crown  Prince,  notwithstand- 
ing the  more  brilliant  qualities  of  the  Princess,  still 
preserves  his  simple  and  natural  attitude  and  his 
undeniable  influence. 

And  when  the  time  comes  to  say  good-bye,  Put- 
litz sums  up  his  experiences  to  his  wife:  "I  have 
been  entertained  by  a  most  highly  dowered  Prin- 
cess and  a  most  marvellous  woman,  full  of  intel- 
lect, energy,  culture,  kindness,  and  benevolence." 

On  September  11,  1864,  a  third  son  was  born, 
Prince  Sigismund.  This  little  Prince  was  des- 
tined to  have  but  a  brief  life.  He  was  born  the 
child  of  peace,  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  be- 


THE  WAR  OF  THE  DUCHIES    19T 

coming  his  godfather,  but  he  died  almost  on  the 
rery  day  that  Prussia  drew  the  sword  against 
Austria  in  the  war  of  1866. 

That  same  autumn  the  Crown  Princess  paid 
her  first  visit  to  Darmstadt,  to  stay  with  her  best 
loved  sister.  Princess  AUce.  The  latter  wrote  to 
Queen  Victoria  a  charming  account  of  the  visit,  in 
which  she  said:  "I  always  admire  Vicky's  under- 
standing and  brightness  each  time  I  see  her  again. 
She  is  so  well,  and  in  such  good  looks  as  I  have 
not  seen  her  for  long.  The  baby  is  a  love  and  is 
very  pretty." 

In  October  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess, 
with  their  four  children,  started  for  La  Farraz, 
in  Switzerland.  They  left  immediately  after  the 
birthday  of  the  Crown  Prince,  which  day  was  also 
that  of  the  baptism  of  Prince  Sigismund.  The 
Prince  wrote  just  before  leaving  Potsdam  to  an 
intimate  friend: 

"The  older  I  grow,  the  more  I  come  to  know 
of  human  beings,  the  more  I  thank  God  for  having 
given  me  a  wife  Kke  mine.  What  happiness  it  is 
to  leave  behind  one  all  one*s  anxieties  and  all  the 
troubles  of  this  life,  to  be  alone  with  those  we  love  I 
I  trust  that  God  will  preserve  our  peace  and 
domestic  happiness.     I  ask  for  nothing  else." 


CHAPTER  XI 

HOME  LIFE  AND   RELIGION 

The  successful  campaign  against  Denmark  had 
drawn  all  German  hearts  together.  Neither  the 
Crown  Prince  nor  the  Crown  Princess  had  ever 
been  unpopular  with  the  army,  who  felt  really 
honoured  by  that  honorary  colonelcy  which  had  so 
much  amused  the  Princess.  The  Danish  War 
greatly  increased  their  popularity,  and  the  year 
that  followed  was  probably  one  of  the  happiest  of 
their  lives.  They  adored  their  children,  who  were 
being  thoroughly  well  brought  up,  and,  with  the 
one  paramount  exception  of  the  Prince  Consort's 
death,  no  great  bereavement  had  cast  its  shadow 
over  their  family  circle. 

The  Crown  Princess  had  early  determined  in 
her  social  life  to  consider  neither  party  spirit  nor 
high  official  position ;  she  preferred  to  gather  round 
her  a  remarkable  society  of  interesting  and  dis- 
tinguished people, — scholars,  theologians,  archee- 
ologists  and  explorers,  artists,  and  men  of  letters. 
She  was  always  passionately  fond  of  music,  and 
many  a  young  performer  owed  his  or  her  first  in- 
troduction to  the  public  at  the  winter  concerts 
which  she  organised,  while  no  British  painter  or 
writer  of  eminence  ever  came  to  Berlin  without 
receiving  an  invitation  to  the  New  Palace. 

198 


HOME  LIFE  AND  RELIGION     199 

One  of  the  most  striking  testimonies  to  the 
Crown  Princess's  intellectual  interests  is  to  be 
found  in  a  letter  written  to  Charles  Darwin,  in 
January,  1865,  by  Sir  Charles  Lyell.  The  great 
geologist  says  that  he  had  had, 

"An  animated  conversation  on  Darwinism  with 
the  Princess  Royal,  who  is  a  worthy  daughter  of 
her  father,  in  the  reading  of  good  books  and  think- 
ing of  what  she  reads.  She  was  very  much  au  fait 
at  the  Origin  and  Huxley's  book,  the  Antiquity, 
&c.  &c.,  and  with  the  Pfahlbauten  Museums  which 
she  lately  saw  in  Switzerland.  She  said  that,  after 
twice  reading  you,  she  could  not  see  her  way  as  to 
the  origin  of  four  things;  namely,  the  world, 
species,  man,  or  the  black  and  white  races.  Did 
one  of  the  latter  come  from  the  other,  or  both  from 
some  common  stock?  And  she  asked  me  what  I 
was  doing,  and  I  explained  that,  in  re-casting  the 
Principles,  I  had  to  give  up  the  independent  crea- 
tion of  each  species.  She  said  she  fully  under- 
stood my  difficulty,  for  after  your  book  'the  old 
opinions  had  received  a  shake  from  which  they 
never  would  recover.'  " 

It  may  seem  an  intrusion  on  what  should  be 
sacred  ground  to  touch  on  the  religious  belief  of 
the  Crown  Princess,  but  it  is  a  subject  on  which 
there  have  been  a  certain  number  of  misstate- 
ments, and  it  may  therefore  be  well  to  set  forth 
plainly  the  material  facts. 

The  present  generation  perhaps  hardly  realises 


200      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

what  a  period  ot  intellectual  ferment  had  set  in 
just  at  the  time  when  the  Princess's  mind  was  most 
eagerly  absorbing  all  that  she  could  read  and  hear 
on  the  subject  of  religion  and  philosophy.  She 
was  twentj^  when  Essays  and  Reviews  appeared: 
she  was  twenty-two  when  Colenso  published  his 
book  on  the  Pentateuch:  twenty-three  when  Re- 
nan's  Vie  de  Jesu  appeared:  twenty-four  when 
Strauss's  shorter  Lehen  Jesu  was  published:  and 
in  one  year  from  the  time  in  her  life  at  which  we 
have  now  arrived  Ecce  Homo  was  to  appear. 
Most  important  of  all,  Darwin  had  published  his 
Origin  of  Species  in  1859,  when  the  Princess  was 
nineteen,  and  it  is  evident  from  Sir  Charles  Ljell's 
letter  that  she  had  not  only  read  but  understood 
that  epoch-making  book.  Of  all  the  giants  of 
those  days  Darwin  alone  remains  a  giant ;  the  lapse 
of  time,  as  well  as  the  work  of  other  scholars  and 
thinkers,  has  reduced  the  intelledtual  stature  of 
those  other  writers  whose  work  seemed  of  such 
crucial  importance  when  the  Princess  was  a  young 
woman. 

It  was  indeed  a  period  when  many  thought  that 
the  old  sound,  even  impregnable,  position  of  Chris- 
tianity had  been  not  only  imdermined  but  over- 
thrown. Strauss,  for  example,  honestly  believed 
that  he  had  entirely  destroyed  the  historical  credi- 
bility of  the  four  Gospels.  The  Princess  herself 
came  to  Germany  at  a  moment  when  the  Tubingen 
schools  were  the  intellectual  leaders,  and  Strauss 


HOME  LIFE  AND  RELIGION     201 

was  their  prophet,  and  the  training  which  she  had 
undergone  under  the  superintendence  of  her  father 
had  prepared  her  to  sympathise  rather  with  the 
attack  than  with  the  defence.  It  is  easy  now  to 
see  that  orthodoxy  was  not  then  very  fortunate  in 
its  champions,  and  that  the  overwhehning  weight 
of  the  scholarship  and  intellectual  strength  of  the 
time  belonged  to  the  advanced  thinkers.  More- 
over, it  must  be  remembered  that  much  of  the 
religion  of  that  day  was  mere  lip-service,  a  conven- 
tional orthodoxy  which,  while  it  resisted  investiga- 
tion and  inquiry  on  the  one  hand,  failed  to  bear 
practical  fruit  in  conduct  and  life. 

Only  a  few  months  after  the  Princess  had  ar- 
rived in  Prussia  as  a  bride,  the  then  Prince  Regent, 
her  father-in-law,  made  a  speech  which  attracted 
great  attention,  not  only  in  Germany  but  in 
Europe  generally.  In  it  he  said  it  could  not  be 
denied  that  in  the  Lutheran  Church,  the  established 
church  of  Prussia,  an  orthodoxy  had  grown  up 
which  was  not  consistent  with  the  basic  principles 
of  the  church,  and  the  church,  in  consequence,  had 
dissemblers  among  its  adherents.  All  hypocrisy, 
the  Prince  continued — and  he  defined  hypocrisy  as 
ecclesiastical  matters  which  are  utilised  for  selfish 
purposes — ought  to  be  exposed  wherever  possible. 
It  was  in  the  whole  conduct  of  the  individual  that 
real  religion  was  exhibited,  and  that  must  always 
be  distinguished  from  external  religious  appearance 
and  show. 


202      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

When  such  language  could  be  used  from  the 
very  steps  of  the  throne,  it  may  be  imagined  how 
great  was  the  intellectual  ferment  in  which  every- 
one who  thought  and  read  at  all  was  necessarily 
involved.  Naturally  the  eager,  impulsive  Prin- 
cess, with  the  intellectual  courage  and  sincerity 
which  her  father  had  implanted  in  her,  could  not 
stand  aloof.  But  if,  at  this  time  of  her  life,  she 
seemed  to  abandon  the  old  orthodox  positions,  it  is 
not  less  true  to  say,  that,  while  paying  the  penalty  at 
the  time  in  unhappiness  and  spiritual  disquiet,  she 
ultimately  reaped  the  reward  of  an  even  firmer 
faith.  She  came  to  see,  indeed,  that  the  deepest 
religious  convictions  are  not  the  fruit  of  philosoph- 
ical speculation  or  of  textual  criticism,  but  of  ex- 
perience. 

In  the  years  that  followed,  the  Princess  was 
destined  to  be  a  near  spectator  of  great  events — of 
the  progress  and  ultimate  triumph  of  Bismarck's 
policy  of  blood  and  iron;  while  in  her  own  home 
she  suiFered  the  bitter  pain  of  the  death  of  her  chil- 
dren, of  sister,  of  brother.  Even  what  seemed 
surely  the  crowning  tragedy  of  her  husband's  brief 
reign  and  swift  end  was  not  all.  That  cruel  mal- 
ady, the  origin  of  which  still  defies  research,  and 
which  often,  as  in  her  case,  kills  slowly  with  linger- 
ing torture,  seized  upon  her  in  her  stricken  widow- 
hood. 

Yet  the  successive  ordeals  through  which  she 
passed  seemed  but  to  strengthen  her  grasp  upon 


HOME  LIFE  AND  RELIGION     203 

the  realities  of  life,  and  the  Christian  faith  took  on 
for  her  a  new  meaning  and  became  the  rock  to  which 
alone  she  clmig.  She  left  a  most  striking  expres- 
sion of  her  religious  belief,  written  in  the  summer 
of  1884,  at  a  time  when  she  had  no  prevision  of  the 
fiery  trials  which  were  still  in  store  for  her.  Long 
as  the  passage  is,  it  is  worth  quoting  in  full: 

"When  people  are  puzzled  with  Christianity  (or 
their  acceptance  of  it),  I  am  reminded  of  a  discus- 
sion between  an  Englishman  and  an  advanced  radi- 
cal of  the  Continent  (a  politician).  The  latter 
said,  'England  will  become  a  republic  as  time  ad- 
vances.' The  Englishman  answered,  'I  do  not  see 
why  she  should.  We  enjoy  all  the  advantages  a 
republic  could  give  us  (and  a  few  more),  and  none 
of  its  disadvantages.'  Does  not  this  conversation 
supply  us  with  a  fit  comparison  when  one  hears, 
The  days  of  creeds  are  gone  by,  &c.?  I  say  'No.' 
You  can  be  a  good  Christian  and  a  Philosopher 
and  a  Sage,  &c.  The  eternal  truths  on  which 
Christianity  rests  are  true  for  ever  and  for  all;  the 
forms  they  take  are  endless ;  their  modes  of  expres- 
sion vary.  It  is  so  living  a  thing  that  it  will  grow 
and  expand  and  unfold  its  depths  to  those  who 
know  how  to  seek  for  them. 

"To  the  thinking,  the  hoard  of  traditions,  of 
legends  and  doctrines,  which  have  gathered  around 
it  in  the  course  of  centuries  remain  precious  and 
sacred,  to  be  loved  and  venerated  as  garbs  in  which 
the  vivifying,  underlying  truths  were  clad,  and  be- 


204      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

yond  which  many  an  eye  has  never  been  able  to 
penetrate.  It  would  be  wrong,  and  cruel,  and 
dangerous  to  disturb  them;  but  meanwhile  the 
number  of  men  who  soar  above  the  earth-born 
smallness  of  outward  things  continues  to  increase, 
and  the  words  in  which  they  clothe  their  souls'  con- 
ception of  Christianity  are  valuable  to  mankind; 
they  are  in  advance  of  the  rest  of  human  beings, 
and  can  be  teachers  and  leaders  by  their  goodness 
and  their  wisdom.  So  were  the  Prophets  and  the 
Apostles  in  their  day,  and  so  are  all  great  vsriters, 
poets,  and  thinkers.  That  the  Church  of  England 
should  now  possess  so  many  of  these  men  is  a 
blessing  for  the  nation,  and  the  best  proof  that  the 
mission  of  the  Church  on  earth  has  not  come  to  an 
end." 

Side  by  side  with  this  we  may  quote  some  lines 
which  brought  the  Empress  Frederick  comfort  in 
her  last  hours  of  suffering: 

"All  are  stairs 
Of  the  illimitable  House  of  God. 
.  .  .  And  men  as  men 
Can  reach  no  higher  than  the  Son  of  God. 
The  perfect  Head  and  Pattern  of  Mankind. 
The  time  is  short,  and  this  suflBceth  us 
To  live  and  die  by ;  and  in  Him  again 
We  see  the  same  first  starry  attribute, 
'Perfect  through  suffering,'  our  salvation's  sealj 
Set  in  the  front  of  His  humanity. 
For  God  has  other  words  for  other  worlds. 
But  for  this  world  the  word  of  God  is  Christ." 


HOME  LIFE  AND  RELIGION     205 

We  must  now  take  up  again  the  thread  of  the 
Crown  Princess's  life,  when,  unshadowed  by  any 
sense  of  impending  doom,  she  was  absorbed  in  her 
husband  and  children  and  in  her  intellectual  and 
artistic  pursuits. 

Early  in  the  year  1865  the  Crown  Princess  had 
the  joy  of  welcoming  her  sister,  Princess  Alice, 
on  a  visit  to  Berlin.  Princess  Alice  wrote  to  the 
Queen:  *' Vicky  is  so  dear,  so  loving!  I  feel  it 
does  me  good.  There  is  the  reflection  of  Papa's 
great  mind  in  her.  He  loved  her  so  much  and  was 
so  proud  of  her;"  and  she  adds  a  vivid  little  picture 
of  the  baby:  "Sigismund  is  the  greatest  darhng 
I  have  ever  seen — so  wonderfully  strong  and  ad- 
vanced for  his  age — ^with  such  fine  colour,  always 
laughing,  and  so  lively  he  nearly  jumps  out  of  our 
arms." 

It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  the  Crown  Princess 
when  her  husband  was  appointed  to  the  curious 
office  of  Protector  of  Public  Museums.  Thence- 
forward they  both  took  a  very  active  part  in  the 
management  of  these  institutions,  and  it  was  owing 
to  their  efforts  that  the  Old  Museum  has  but  few 
rivals  in  Europe  in  completeness  and  arrangement. 

Prussia  was  then  very  backward  in  the  practical 
application  of  art  to  industry,  but  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess, who  had  seen  how  much  her  father  had 
achieved  in  this  direction  in  England,  was  deter- 
mined to  do  all  she  could  to  secure  a  similar  im- 
provement in  her  adopted  country.     Early  in  1865 


206      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

she  caused  a  memorandum  to  be  drawn  up  setting 
forth  the  necessity  of  founding  a  School  of  Ap- 
plied Art  on  the  model  of  similar  institutions  in 
England.  The  movement  thus  started  by  the 
Crown  Princess  led  eventually  to  the  foundation 
of  the  Museum  of  Industrial  Art  at  Berlin,  which 
is  connected  with  the  School  of  Applied  Art. 

It  was  largely  due  to  the  active  support  and  in- 
terest of  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  that  ap- 
plied art  not  only  found  a  home  in  Prussia,  but  in 
the  course  of  time  reached  so  high  a  pitch  of  ex- 
cellence that  other  countries  are  now  fain  to  learn 
from  Germany.  The  Crown  Prince  and  Princess, 
also,  both  suggested  and  themselves  supervised  the 
collection  and  arrangement  of  an  exhibition  of 
artistic  objects  in  the  Royal  Armoury  at  Ber- 
lin. This,  by  showing  Prussian  craftsmen  what 
had  already  been  done,  greatly  promoted  the 
development  of  applied  art. 

But  all  was  not  sunshine  during  this  peaceful, 
happy  year,  for  during  its  course  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess lost  the  constant  support  and  loyal  help  of 
Robert  Morier.  Although  the  whole  of  his  diplo- 
matic career  had  been  given  up  to  Germany,  al- 
though he  had  devoted  himself  entirely  to  the  study 
of  the  political,  social,  and  commercial  conditions, 
and  of  the  relations  between  Prussia  and  England, 
it  was  arranged  that  he  should  be  transferred  to 
Athens. 

Morier  parted  with  the  Crown  Prince  and  Prin- 


HOME  LIFE  AND  RELIGION     207 

cess  on  December  15,  and  it  is  on  record  that  the 
Princess  wept  bitterly  on  saying  good-bye  to  him. 
Bismarck  and  his  followers  were  proportionately 
delighted  at  getting  rid  of  him.  But  their  joy 
was  premature,  for  the  Athens  appointment  fell 
through,  and  Morier  was  finally  transferred  to 
Darmstadt  as  Charge  d' Affaires,  a  change  due  to 
the  personal  intervention  of  Queen  Victoria. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  Bismarck  generally 
looked  at  things  from  a  personal  point  of  view. 
He  had  found  by  experience  the  value  of  secret 
agents,  of  whom  he  made  constant  use,  and  so  he 
believed  that  every  one  whom  he  disliked,  whom  he 
feared,  whom  he  wished  to  conciliate,  made  use  of 
them  too.  To  his  mind  Robert  Morier  was  a  secret 
agent,  and  it  was  his  great  desire  to  isolate  the 
Crown  Prince  and  Princess  from  everyone  who  did 
not  belong  directly  to  his  own  party. 

While  at  Darmstadt  Morier  remained  in  touch 
with  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess,  and  it  was  he 
who  advised  the  selection  of  Dr.  Hinzpeter  as  tutor 
to  their  eldest  son,  afterwards  the  Emperor  Wil- 
liam II.  Dr.  Hinzpeter,  who  had  been  a  friend 
of  Morier  for  some  time,  was  an  authority  on 
national  economy  and  social  reform,  as  well  as  a 
man  of  the  highest  personal  character. 

In  the  summer  of  1865  Frau  Putlitz  and  her 
husband  were  the  guests  of  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  at  Potsdam.  This  time  it  is  the  wife  who 
records  her  impressions  in  a  series  of  letters  to  her 


208      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

sister.  She  was  quite  as  fervent  an  admirer  of  the 
Crown  Princess  as  Putlitz  was,  and  her  letters 
really  supplement  and  complete  his  letters,  for  they 
supply  the  feminine  point  of  view. 

Frau  Putlitz  was  perhaps  most  impressed  by  the 
Crown  Princess's  versatility — the  ease  with  which 
she  could  turn  from  a  gay  and  smiling  talk  about 
bulbs,  for  instance,  to  the  serious  discussion  of  the 
profoundest  subjects  of  philosophy.  Naturally, 
this  feminine  observer  notes  the  Princess's  style  of 
dressing,  which  she  greatly  admires  as  being  both 
simple  and  perfect.  "There  is,"  she  says,  "a  charm 
about  her  whole  presence  which  it  is  impossible  to 
describe."  Her  way  of  speaking,  too,  was  fasci- 
nating, and  though  she  declared  that  her  German 
had  an  English  accent,  Frau  PutHtz  found  it 
delightfully  soft.  Shakespeare  the  Princess  fre- 
quently quoted,  and  one  morning  she  read  long 
passages  with  an  expression  which  was  warmly  ap- 
proved by  the  dramatist,  Putlitz  himself,  who 
might  be  allowed  to  be  a  good  judge.  Frau  Put- 
litz thought  that  the  special  charm  of  the  Princess 
consisted  in  her  entire  simplicity  and  naturalness, 
which  was  exemplified  in  her  never  uttering  banal, 
used-up  phrases. 

Of  the  children  we  have  some  glimpses ;  they  are 
described  as  perfectly  charming  and  very  lively. 
The  Princess  told  Frau  Putlitz  how  anxious  she 
was  to  have  Prince  William  educated  away  from 
home  with  other  boys  of  his  own  age,  and  this  in- 


HOME  LIFE  AND  RELIGION     209 

tention,  as  we  know,  she  afterwards  carried  out  in 
the  case  of  both  Prince  William  and  Prince  Henry. 
Little  Prince  Sigismund  is  pronounced  to  be  really 
a  delightful  child.  The  Princess  spoke  with  deep 
feeling  of  her  father,  whom  she  scarcely  mentioned 
without  tears,  and  she  brought  out  all  her  souvenirs 
of  him  which  she  kept  with  loving  care. 

We  are  also  shown  the  Princess  among  her  books 
and  pictures,  the  Princess  singing  old  Scottish 
ballads  and  English  hymns,  the  Princess  painting 
flower-pieces,  and  above  all  the  Princess  as  a  gar- 
dener. Frau  PutHtz  compares  the  neatness  of  the 
Princess's  own  little  garden,  laid  out  by  herself, 
to  that  of  a  little  jewel-box.  Enormous  straw- 
berries grew  on  beds  of  white  moss  under  the  beech 
hedges,  and  a  gigantic  Uly  brought  by  the  Crown 
Prince  from  Hamburg  was  exhibited  with  pride. 
Frau  Putlitz  was  surprised  at  the  Princess's  prac- 
tical knowledge  of  horticulture,  and  the  thorough- 
ness with  which  she  set  about  it. 

These  are  not,  to  be  sure,  matters  of  great  im- 
portance in  themselves,  but  it  is  interesting  to  see 
how  completely  the  charm  of  the  Princess's  person- 
ality fascinated  both  husband  and  wife,  who  were 
by  no  means  ordinary  observers. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  AUSTRIAN  WAR:  WORK  IN  THE  HOSPITALS 

We  come  now  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war  with 
Austria,  which  arose  directly  out  of  the  war  with 
Denmark,  and' which,  as  we  now  look  back  upon 
it,  seems  to  fall  naturally  into  its  place  as  part  of 
Bismarck's  politique  de  longue  haleine  for  the  uni- 
fication of  Germany. 

The  Royal  personages  of  his  time  were  to  Bis- 
marck only  pawns  in  the  great  game  on  which  he 
was  ever  engaged.  It  is  impossible  to  read  his 
life  and  other  literary  remains  without  being  struck 
by  the  contempt  which  he  entertained  for  at  any 
rate  the  great  majority  of  those  belonging  to  the 
Royal  caste,  though  the  management  of  them 
sometimes  tried  all  his  powers.  It  is  significant 
that  at  one  moment  Bismarck  had  practically  made 
up  his  mind  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Prince 
whom  he  habitually  called  "the  Augustenburger" 
in  the  Elbe  duchies,  and  it  was  only  after  a  pro- 
longed interview  with  the  Prince  himself  that  he 
changed  his  mind,  finding  him  to  be,  from  his  point 
of  view,  quite  impracticable. 

As  a  rule,  however,  those  Royal  personages 
whom  Bismarck  looked  upon  as  pawns  were  actu- 
ally not  only  content  but  proud  of  the  position; 

210 


THE  AUSTRIAN  WAR  211 

the  capital  exceptions  were  of  course  the  Crown 
Prince  and  Princess,  who  steadily  resented  and 
fought — sometimes  successfully — against  Bis- 
marck's efforts  to  relegate  them  to  a  position  in 
which  they  would  not  count  at  all. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  how  Bismarck  always 
managed  to  turn  to  account  even  circumstances 
which  seemed  at  first  sight  most  prejudicial  to  his 
designs.  Thus  in  June  1865  the  Budget,  which 
included  the  payment  of  the  bill  for  the  Danish 
War,  was  rejected  by  the  Liberal  Deputies  in  the 
Chamber,  but  it  was  this  which  enabled  Bismarck 
to  take  the  plunge  and  govern  without  the  consti- 
tution. 

This  rejection  of  the  Budget  was  followed  by 
the  Convention  of  Gastein  in  August,  by  which 
Austria  was  to  have  the  temporary  government  of 
Holstein,  and  Prussia  that  of  Schleswig.  Such 
an  arrangement  contained  no  element  of  perma- 
nence, and  was  indeed  an  obvious  step  on  the  way 
towards  annexation.  To  the  hereditary  claims  of 
"the  Augustenburger,"  which  the  Crown  Prince 
had  most  loyally  continued  to  support,  it  dealt  a 
fatal  blow,  and  it  is  particularly  interesting  to  note 
that  Bismarck  implored  the  King  to  keep  the  nego- 
tiations which  led  up  to  the  Convention  absolutely 
secret  from  the  Crown  Prince.  He  frankly  told 
his  sovereign  that  if  a  hint  should  reach  Queen 
Victoria,  the  suspicions  of  the  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  would  be  aroused,  and  the  whole  negotia- 


212      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

tions  would  fail,  and  he  added,  "Behind  such 
failure  there  lies  an  inevitable  war  with  Austria." 

The  secret  was  duly  kept  from  the  Crown  Prince ; 
he  received  the  news  of  the  Convention  with  amaze- 
ment, and  it  served  to  increase — ^if  that  was  possi- 
ble— ^his  detestation  of  Bismarck's  policy. 

The  year  1866  therefore  began  with  the  gloom- 
iest prospects  from  the  point  of  view  held  by  the 
Crown  Prince  and  Princess.  The  Chambers  were 
opened,  but  quickly  prorogued,  and  Prussia  openly 
prepared  for  war.  Bismarck  saw  that  the  moment 
was  most  favourable,  for  Austria  was  in  want  of 
money,  and  was  also  beset  with  domestic  difficulties 
in  Hungary,  while  he  himself  had  already  prac- 
tically arranged  for  the  support  of  Italy.  Aus- 
tria was  thus  driven  to  demand  the  demobihsation 
of  Prussia,  and  this  was  supported  in  the  Federal 
Diet  by  Bavaria,  Saxony,  Hanover,  Hesse-Cassel, 
and  other  States.  Thereupon,  on  June  14, 
Prussia  declared  the  Germanic  Confederation  dis- 
solved, and  war  began  on  the  18th. 

We  have  become  so  much  accustomed  to  the  con- 
ception of  a  united  Germany  that  it  seems  now 
extraordinary  that  in  this  war  Prussia,  with  the 
Northern  States,  should  have  been  ranged  against, 
not  only  Austria,  but  Hanover  and  Hesse-Cassel, 
with  Saxony  and  Bavaria. 

It  thus  fell  out  that  the  Crown  Princess  and  her 
sister.  Princess  Alice,  were  on  opposite  sides — a 
singular  penalty  which  Royal  personages  are  liable 


THE  AUSTRIAN  WAR  213 

to  pay  for  the  privileges  of  their  rank.  The  cir- 
cumstance naturally  increased  the  maternal  anx- 
iety of  Queen  Victoria.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
she  believed  that  Austria  would  win,  and  when  the 
result  proved  that  she  was  wrong,  her  distrust  of 
Bismarck  was  increased,  not  by  his  success,  but 
by  the  use  which  he  made  of  it. 

Princess  Alice's  correspondence  with  her  mother 
reveals  how  much  she  was  affected  by  the  prospect 
of  this  civil  war,  as  she  calls  it.  There  are  con- 
stant references  to  "poor  Vicky  and  Fritz."  On 
the  eve  of  the  outbreak  she  told  her  mother  that 
her  husband.  Prince  Louis  of  Hesse,  intended  to 
go  to  Berlin  for  a  day  just  to  see  Fritz  and  explain 
how  circumstances  now  forced  him  to  draw  his 
sword  against  the  Prussians  in  the  service  of  his 
own  country. 

We  have  already  noted  the  extent  to  which  the 
Crown  Prince  was  excluded  at  this  time  from  State 
policy,  but  as  far  as  he  possibly  could,  even  up  to 
the  eleventh  hour,  he  continued  to  oppose  the  idea 
of  war.  The  moment,  however,  that  the  die  was 
cast  and  war  was  declared,  he  became  the  simple 
soldier,  intent  only  on  his  military  duties  and  ar- 
dently desiring  a  victory  for  Prussia. 

The  Crown  Princess's  second  daughter  was  bom 
on  April  12,  and  was  christened  Frederica  Amelia 
Wilhelmina  Victoria. 

In  May,  the  Prussian  Army  was  divided  into 
three  Corps,  of  which  the  second  was  placed  under 


214      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  comipand  of  the  Crown  Prince,  who  was  also 
appointed  Military  Governor  of  Silesia  during  the 
mobilisation. 

Immediately  after  the  christening  of  the  little 
Princess,  the  Crown  Prince  joined  his  staff  at 
Breslau.  But  he  left  under  the  most  mournful 
auspices.  Just  before  his  departure  the  baby 
Prince  Sigismund,  whom  Princess  Alice  had  de- 
scribed as  "that  beautiful  boy,  the  joy  and  pride  of 
his  parents,"  fell  suddenly  ill,  and,  what  seemed 
particularly  cruel  and  unnecessary,  even  the  doctor 
in  attendance  on  the  sick  child  had  to  leave  for  the 
front. 

There  is  a  very  sad  reference  to  the  illness  of  her 
little  nephew  in  a  letter  written  by  Princess  Alice 
on  June  15:  "The  serious  illness  of  poor  littlei 
Sigismund  in  the  midst  of  all  these  troubles  is 
really  dreadful  for  poor  Vicky  and  Fritz,  they  are 
so  fond  of  that  merry  little  child." 

Prince  Sigismund's  disease  was  at  first  difficult 
to  diagnose.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  menin- 
gitis, and  very  soon  it  became  clear  that  there  was 
no  hope.  On  June  19  the  child  died,  at  the  very 
moment  when  his  father  was  addressing  his  troops 
at  Niesse,  and  the  Crown  Princess  found  herself 
alone,  without  anyone  near  or  dear  to  her  to  share 
her  bitter  grief  in  this,  the  second  great  loss  of  her 
life. 

Queen  Augusta  journeyed  to  the  front  to  tell 
her  son  of  his  bereavement.     He,  however,  more 


THE  AUSTRIAN  WAR  215 

fortunate  than  the  Crown  Princess,  had  much  to 
absorb  every  moment  of  his  time  and  thoughts. 
But  after  the  war  was  over,  in  a  speech  made  to 
the  Municipality  of  Berlin,  the  Crown  Prince  al- 
luded briefly  to  his  loss.  "It  was  a  heavy  trial  to 
be  separated  from  my  wife  and  my  dying  boy.  It 
was  a  sacrifice  which  I  offered  to  my  country." 

In  the  Reminiscences  of  Diplomatic  Life  pub- 
lished by  Lady  Macdonell,  widow  of  Sir  Hugh 
Macdonell,  a  fact  is  revealed  which  shows  how  the 
mother's  heart  must  have  hungered  for  Prince 
Sigismund. 

Lady  Macdonell  became  on  terms  of  consider- 
able intimacy  with  the  Crown  Princess,  who  was 
evidently  impressed  by  her  sympathetic  nature. 
One  day,  when  they  were  going  down  a  corridor 
in  the  New  Palace,  the  Princess  suddenly  unlocked 
a  door,  and  in  the  room  to  which  the  locked  door 
gave  access  was  preserved  surely  one  of  the  strang- 
est and  most  pathetic  forms  of  consolation  to  which 
a  bereaved  mother  ever  had  recourse.  Lady  Mac- 
donell writes: 

"I  saw  a  cradle,  and  in  it  a  baby  boy,  beautiful 
to  look  upon,  but  it  was  only  the  waxen  image  of 
the  former  occupant,  the  little  Prince  Wenceslau 
[a  mistake  for  Sigismund],  who  had  died  when  the 
Crown  Prince  went  to  the  war  of  1866.  How 
pathetic  it  was  to  note  the  silver  rattle  and  ball 
lying  as  though  flung  aside  by  the  little  hand,  the 
toys  which  had  amused  his  baby  mind  arranged  all 


216      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

about  the  cradle,  his  little  shoes  waiting,  always 
waiting — at  the  side." 

When,  five  years  later.  Prince  and  Princess 
Charles  of  Roumania  lost  their  only  child.  Princess 
Marie,  at  the  age  of  three  and  a  half,  the  Crown 
Prince  wrote  a  letter  of  condolence  to  Prince 
Charles,  who  was  Prince  Sigismund's  godfather,  in 
which  he  said: 

"May  the  grace  of  God  give  you  strength  to 
bear  the  hopeless  grief,  the  weight  of  which  we 
know  from  our  own  knowledge!  In  imagination 
I  place  myself  in  your  attitude  of  mind,  and  realise 
that  you  must  both  be  benumbed  with  sorrow  at 
seeing  your  sweet  child  dead  before  you,  knowing 
that  you  can  never  again  see  a  hght  in  her  dear 
eyes,  never  again  a  smile  on  her  face!  Certainly 
it  is  hard  to  say:  'Thy  will  be  done!'  I  put  this 
text  on  the  tomb  of  my  son  Sigismund,  your  god- 
child, because  I  know  of  no  other  consolation;  and 
yet  I  cannot  overcome  that  pain  to-day,  though 
many  years  have  already  gone  by,  and  though  God 
has  given  me  a  large  family.  Time  does  un- 
doubtedly blunt  the  keenest  edge  of  a  parentis 
anguish,  but  it  does  not  take  away  the  weight  of 
sorrow  which  goes  with  one  for  the  rest  of  one's 
life.  That  my  wife  is  united  with  me  in  these  sym- 
pathetic thoughts  you  know." 

The  course  of  the  war  of  1866  is  well  known, 
and  there  is  no  need  to  trace  it  in  detail.  The 
operations  of  the  Crown  Prince  with  the  Second, 


THE  AUSTRIAN  WAR  217 

or  Silesian,  Army  exercised  a  crucial  influence  on 
the  whole  campaign.  Field-Marshal  Count  von 
Blumenthal,  who,  as  Chief  of  the  Staff,  saw  the 
whole  of  the  operations,  bears  testimony  to  the 
brilliant  strategic  dispositions  of  the  Crown  Prince, 
which  were  particularly  exhibited  in  the  defeat  of 
the  Austrians  at  Nachod  and  the  subsequent 
engagements.  Von  Blumenthal  notes  that  the 
Crown  Prince  possessed,  not  only  an  extraordinary 
power  of  self-control  and  coolness,  but  also,  what 
is  not  always  found  even  in  the  greatest  military 
leaders  an  instinctive  perception  of  how  much  he 
could  leave  to  subordinates,  while  himself  keeping  a 
firm  hand  on  the  general  course  of  action.  The 
soldiers  themselves  adored  him,  for  he  always 
managed  to  find  time  to  visit  the  wounded  in  the 
field  hospitals,  as  well  as  to  encourage  by  his  in- 
spiring utterances  the  troops  in  line. 

The  manner  in  which  the  Crown  Prince  effected 
a  junction  with  Prince  Frederick  Charles  and  the 
First  Army  was  most  masterly;  he  came  up  ex- 
actly at  the  right  moment  and  at  the  right  place. 
Unfortunately,  as  generally  happens,  politics  inter- 
vened, and  the  Crown  Prince  was  prevented  from 
following  up  the  victories  with  as  much  energy  as 
he  desired — indeed,  it  seemed  to  him  that  there 
was  a  conspiracy  to  tie  his  hands  and  control  his 
movements.  He  even  dropped  a  hint  in  the  sym- 
pathetic ear  of  von  Blumenthal  that  if  this  treat- 
ment continued  he  would  ask  the  King  to  relieve 


218      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

him  of  his  command.  Happily  this  was  not  neces- 
sary. The  King  himself  assumed  the  supreme  com- 
mand on  July  1,  and  two  days  later  there  came  the 
crowning  mercy  of  Koniggratz,  or  Sadowa,  when 
the  Austrians,  under  Benedek,  were  totally  de- 
feated. It  was  for  his  services  at  this  great  battle 
that  the  Crown  Prince  was  decorated  with  the  Or- 
der "Pour  le  Merite." 

Of  Bismarck's  exertions  in  this  war,  an  English 
observer  who  was  with  the  Prussian  Army  has  left 
the  following  striking  picture: 

"Bismarck  believes  in  himself  and  fully  so.  He 
believes  he  was  called  on  to  do  a  certain  work,  and 
that  he  is  quite  able  to  accomplish  it.  His  power 
of  endurance  is  very  great.  He  often  sits  up  night 
after  night  working  hard.  During  this  campaign 
he  has  never  slept  more  than  three  hours  out  of  the 
twenty-four:  this  is  less  than  the  great  Napoleon, 
who  under  similar  circumstances  took  four  hours' 
sleep.  But  constantly  continued  work  has  had  an 
effect  upon  him:  his  face  is  seamed  all  over,  he  has 
dark  lines  under  his  eyes,  and  the  eyes  themselves 
are  bloodshot.  He  looks  like  a  man  who  is  knocked 
up  by  overwork,  and  yet  he  is  gay  and  jovial,  pleas- 
ant and  cheery.  What  surprised  me  most  was  his 
thorough  openness  in  conversation.  Without  the 
least  reserve  he  spoke  of  his  intentions,  of  the  future 
of  Prussia  and  of  Germany.  For  an  hour  and  a 
half  he  thus  went  on.  His  resolve  is  indomitable, 
and  he  also  feels  certain  of  going  through  the  work 


H.R.H.    THE    PRINCESS    FREDERICK    WILLIAM    OF    PRUSSIA 

PRINXESS    ROYAL    OF    GREAT    BRITAIN    AND    IRELAND 

AND  THE  INFANT  PRINCE  FREDERICK  WILLIAM  VICTOR  ALBERT, 

MAY  1859 


THE  AUSTRIAN  WAR  219 

before  him.  The  King  is  of  course  a  mere  tool  in 
his  hands ;  but  it  shows  his  great  skill  and  dexterity 
in  turning  such  an  instrument  to  serve  his  purpose. 
I  do  not  think  him  Liberal  in  the  sense  that  you  or 
I  are  Liberal.  There  is  no  doubt  but  what  he 
thinks  best  he  will  enforce,  and  that  what  he  does 
is,  he  believes,  for  the  good  and  glory  of  Prussia.'* 

Further  Prussian  victories  followed,  and  the  ne- 
gotiations for  peace  exhibited  a  curious  rearrange- 
ment of  the  three  personalities  concerned. 

Bismarck  was  strongly  in  favour  of  concluding 
peace  very  much  on  the  terms  offered  by  Austria, 
partly  because  he  feared  French  intervention,  and 
partly  because  he  saw  the  imprudence  of  pressing 
home  her  defeat  so  deeply  upon  Austria  as  to  leave 
her  with  a  burning  desire  for  revenge.  He  wanted 
to  look  forward,  in  the  diplomacy  of  the  future,  to 
a  friendly  Austria.  The  King,  however,  could  not 
bear  to  sacrifice,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  the  result  of 
the  expenditure  of  so  much  blood  and  treasure,  and 
he  wished  to  follow  up  the  Prussian  victories,  with- 
out having  any  very  clear  idea  of  what  further 
gains  could  thereby  be  made. 

In  these  circumstances  it  was  the  Crown  Prince 
who  came  forward  as  the  mediator  between  the 
King  and  his  Minister;  it  was  the  Crown  Prince 
who  supported  Bismarck  against  his  father.  What 
really  clinched  the  matter  with  the  King  was  Bis- 
marck's threat  to  resign.  At  the  critical  Council 
of  War  there  was  a  dramatic  scene.     The  King 


220     THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

turned  to  the  Crown  Prince  and  said,  "You  speak, 
in  the  name  of  the  future;"  and  when  he  found 
that  his  son  agreed  with  Bismarck  he  gave  in,  and 
consented,  as  he  himself  described  it,  to  bite  into  the 
sour  apple. 

Nevertheless,  the  terms  of  peace  were  not  at 
all  bad  for  Prussia.  Her  great  object,  namely,  the 
dissolution  of  the  Germanic  Confederation,  was 
secured;  she  obtained  a  considerable  accession  of 
territory,  including  Schleswig  and  Holstein,  Han- 
over, the  Electorate  of  Hesse,  and  other  territories, 
which  covered  more  than  1300  square  miles,  with  a 
population  of  over  four  millions.  Moreover,  in 
August,  1866,  on  the  invitation  of  the  King  of 
Prussia,  the  Northern  States  of  Germany  con- 
cluded a  treaty  of  alliance,  offensive  and  defen- 
sive. Thus  was  estabhshed  the  North-German 
Confederation,  which  was  joined  by  Saxony  in  the 
following  October,  and  formed  an  important  step 
on  the  way  to  a  united  German  Empire.  Alto- 
gether the  Confederation  consisted  of  twenty-two 
States,  and  the  first  meeting  of  the  Deputies  was 
held  at  Berlin  on  February  24,  1867. 

It  was  suggested  that  the  Crown  Prince  should 
become  Governor-General  of  Hanover,  thus  newly 
annexed  to  Prussia.  It  was  thought  that  this  plan 
would  to  a  great  extent  console  Hanover  for  losing 
her  status  as  a  kingdom,  especially  as  the  Crown 
Princess  was  closely  related  to  the  dispossessed 
monarch,  King  George  V.     The  Crown  Prince, 


THE  AUSTRIAN  WAR  221 

however,  insisted  on  arrangements  which  would 
have  made  Hanover  altogether  too  independent  to 
be  agreeable  to  Bismarck,  and  so  the  idea  was  not 
carried  out. 

On  the  close  of  the  war  of  1866,  the  Crown 
Prince  and  Princess  proceeded  to  Haringsdorf,  a 
little  village  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic,  to  which 
the  Princess  and  her  children  had  been  sent  on  ac- 
count of  the  cholera,  which  was  then  very  prev- 
alent in  Potsdam. 

While  there  the  Princess  still  busied  herself  with 
plans  for  the  care  of  the  wounded  in  the  war.  She 
had  already  assigned  a  great  part  of  the  palace  at 
Potsdam  for  the  nursing  of  wounded  officers,  and 
a  little  later  on  she  proceeded  with  her  husband  on 
a  long  visit  to  Silesia.  There  they  greatly  im- 
proved the  organisation  of  the  war  hospital  at 
Hirschberg.  Everything  was  under  their  personal 
supervision,  and,  thanks  to  their  energy  and  kindly 
encouragement,  the  work  was  undoubtedly  much 
more  efficiently  done  than  it  would  otherwise  have 
been. 

The  Crown  Prince  had  ridden  with  his  father 
over  the  stricken  field  of  Koniggratz,  doing  what 
they  could  to  succour  the  wounded  and  the  dying. 
How  deeply  the  horrors  of  war  had  been  impressed 
on  the  Prince's  mind  is  shown  by  the  words  he 
wrote  in  his  diary  on  the  night  of  the  battle :  "He 
who  causes  war  with  a  stroke  of  the  pen  knows  not 
what  he  is  calling  up  from  Hades." 


222      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

As  for  the  Crown  Princess,  though  she  had  been 
spared  the  sight  of  the  worst  horrors,  she  had  never- 
theless seen  enough  to  enable  her,  with  her  eager, 
imaginative  sympathy,  to  share  in  the  fullest  de- 
gree her  husband's  intense  feeling.  She  never  felt 
she  could  do  enough  to  mitigate  the  sufferings  of 
the  soldiers,  both  on  the  battlefield  and  afterwards 
in  the  weary  months  of  convalescence  in  hospital. 
This  autumn  she  organised  an  enormous  bazaar  at 
the  New  Palace  in  aid  of  the  wounded,  to  which 
contributions  came  from  all  over  the  world.  The 
Crown  Prince  himself  went  round  collecting  money 
for  the  soldiers,  and  the  whole  enterprise  brought 
in  a  large  sum  for  the  fund. 

The  years  that  followed  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  with  France  were  not  very  eventful. 

At  the  beginning  of  1867,  the  Crown  Prince 
and  Princess  stayed  a  while  at  Dover,  where  they 
met  Princess  Alice  and  her  husband,  who  went 
back  with  them  to  stay  for  a  few  weeks  in  Berlin. 
They  afterwards  went  together  to  Paris,  at  the 
invitation  of  the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  the 
French,  in  order  to  visit  the  great  International 
Exhibition  then  being  held  there.  The  Crown 
Prince  had  served  as  president  of  the  Prussian 
Committee  for  the  Exhibition.  Their  stay  in 
France  gave  great  pleasure  to  the  Crown  Princess ; 
the  two  sisters  visited  many  philanthropic  centres, 
and  made  an  exhaustive  survey  of  French  art.  It 
was  on  this  visit  to  Paris  that  the  Crown  Princess 


THE  AUSTRIAN  WAR  223 

first  conceived  the  idea  of  the  School  of  Design  in 
Berlin  which  now  bears  her  name,  for  she  was 
greatly  impressed  by  the  imaginative  fertility  of  the 
Parisian  craftsmen,  and  by  the  perfection  of  their 
work. 

The  Crown  Princess  left  Paris  before  her  hus- 
band. Princess  Alice  wrote  to  her  mother  on  June 
9:  "Dear  Vicky  is  gone.  She  was  so  low  the  last 
days,  and  dislikes  going  to  parties  so  much  just 
now,  that  she  was  longing  to  get  home.  The  King 
[of  Prussia]  wished  them  both  to  stop,  but  only 
Fritz  remained.  How  sad  these  days  will  be  for 
her,  poor  love !  She  was  in  such  good  looks ;  every 
one  here  is  charmed  with  her." 

The  Crown  Prince  had  induced  his  father  to  visit 
the  Exhibition,  and  the  King,  who  brought  Bis- 
marck with  him,  had  a  magnificent  reception  from 
the  Imperial  Court.  The  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  did  not  abate  their  interest  in  pohtics,  and 
they  certainly  shared  Bismarck's  view  at  this  time 
that  an  arrangement  with  France  was  in  every  way 
desirable  in  order  to  avert  war  and  to  consoKdate 
the  gains  of  1866. 

In  the  autumn  a  terrible  scarcity,  almost  amount- 
ing to  famine,  in  East  Prussia  afforded  a  fresh  op- 
portunity for  the  practical  sympathy  of  the  Crown 
Prince  and  Princess.  Together  they  organised  a 
relief  fund  and  relief  works  by  which  the  sufferings 
of  the  population  were  much  mitigated. 

It  was  on  February  10,  1868,  the  anniversary 


224      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

of  Queen  Victoria's  wedding,  and  of  the  Crown 
Princess's  christening,  that  another  son  was  born, 
who  seemed  sent  to  fill  the  terrible  gap  which  the 
death  of  Prince  Sigismund  had  made  two  years  be- 
fore. The  child  was  christened  on  the  King  of 
Prussia's  seventy-first  birthday,  at  Berlin,  receiving 
the  names  of  Joachim  Frederick  Ernest  Waldemar. 
The  Princess's  fourth  son  was  a  beautiful  and 
clever  child,  and  his  death,  which  was  to  follow  when 
he  was  only  eleven  years  old,  was  perhaps  the  deep- 
est grief  that  fell  on  his  parents.  It  is  significant 
that  when  the  Emperor  Frederick  chose  his  last 
resting-place,  he  desired  to  lie  by  the  side  of  this 
child. 

In  the  spring  of  1868  the  Crown  Prince  paid 
a  visit  to  Italy  in  return  for  the  visit  paid  to  Berhn 
by  Prince  Humbert  the  year  before.  The  Crown 
Princess  did  not  go  with  him,  but  she  followed  with 
deep  interest  and  pleasure  the  accounts  of  his  re- 
ception, which  were  remarkably  enthusiastic,  and 
also  politically  useful,  for  it  prevented  the  accession 
to  power  of  a  Ministry  hostile  to  Prussia. 

In  1869  the  Crown  Princess  received  a  long  visit 
from  Princess  Alice  at  Potsdam,  and  the  two  sisters 
spent  their  mother's  birthday.  May  24,  together. 
Princess  Alice  spoke  in  a  letter  to  Queen  Victoria 
of  the  delightful  life  "with  dear  Vicky,  so  quiet 
and  pleasant,  which  reminds  me  in  many  things  of 
our  life  in  England  in  former  happy  days,  and  so 


THE  AUSTRIAN  WAR  225 

much  that  we  had  Vicky  has  copied  for  her  chil- 
dren. Yet  we  both  always  say  to  each  other  that 
no  children  were  so  happy,  and  so  spoiled  with  all 
the  enjoyments  and  comforts  children  can  wish  for, 
as  we  were."  Again,  on  June  19,  "Vicky  was  very 
low  yesterday;  she  has  been  so  for  the  last  week, 
and  she  told  me  much  of  what  an  awful  time  she 
went  through  in  1866  when  dear  Siggie  [Sigis- 
mund]  died.  The  little  chapel  is  very  peaceful  and 
cheerful  and  full  of  flowers.  We  go  there  en  pas- 
sant nearly  daily,  and  it  seems  to  give  dear  Vicky 
pleasure  to  go  there." 

The  two  sisters  spent  a  happy  time  together  at 
Cannes  in  the  late  autumn  of  1869,  while  their  re- 
spective husbands  were  abroad.  The  Crown 
Prince,  with  Prince  Louis  of  Hesse,  visited  Vienna, 
Athens,  Constantinople,  and  the  Holy  Land,  and 
went  on  thence  to  Port  Said  for  the  opening  of  the 
Suez  Canal.  In  Jerusalem  the  Crown  Prince  took 
formal  possession  in  the  name  of  his  father  of  the 
ruined  convent  of  St.  John,  ceded  by  the  Sultan 
for  the  erection  of  a  German  Protestant  Church. 
The  two  Princes  joined  their  wives  at  Cannes 
shortly  before  Christmas. 

On  their  way  home  the  Crown  Prince  and  Prin- 
cess spent  a  week  in  Paris,  staying  at  an  hotel. 
The  Crown  Princess  was  surprised  to  see  how 
changed  the  Emperor  Napoleon  was  since  they  had 
seen  him  last.     She  thought  him  ailing  and  de- 


226      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

jected.  In  the  course  of  conversation,  the  Em- 
peror mentioned  that  he  had  a  new  Minister,  a  cer- 
tain M.  Ollivier. 

The  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  returned  to  Ber- 
lin on  the  morning  of  the  New  Year,  1870.  The 
next  time  the  Crown  Prince  met  Napoleon  III  was 
on  the  morning  after  the  capitulation  of  Sedan. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  WAR 

The  year  1870  opened  with  no  premonition  of  the 
tremendous  events  it  was  to  bring  forth. 

Princess  Victoria  had  been  born  on  the  eve  of 
the  Austrian  War  in  1866,  and  now,  on  the  eve 
of  this  yet  greater  struggle,  on  June  14,  1870,  the 
Crown  Princess  gave  birth  to  her  third  daughter, 
Princess  Sophia  Dorothea  Ulrica  Alice,  who  was 
destined  to  become  Queen  of  the  Hellenes.  The 
candidature  of  Prince  Leopold  of  Hohenzollern- 
Sigmaringen  for  the  throne  of  Spain  was  announced 
on  July  4,  and  after  fruitless  attempts  at  inter- 
vention by  the  Crown  Princess's  old  friend.  Lord 
Granville,  then  the  British  Foreign  Minister,  war 
was  declared  between  France  and  Prussia  on  July 
15. 

At  the  time  of  the  little  Princess's  christening, 
which  took  place  at  the  New  Palace  on  July  25, 
there  were  few  present  at  the  ceremony  who  were 
not  under  orders  for  the  front,  and  most  of  the 
men  were  already  in  their  campaigning  uniform. 
Emotion,  anxiety,  and  excitement  made  the  even 
then  old  King  William  feel  unequal  to  the  task 
of  holding  his  little  granddaughter  at  the  bap- 
tismal font  according  to  his  wont,  and  this  duty 

227 


228      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

was  performed  for  him  by  Queen  Augusta.  The 
fact  that  the  Kings  of  Wiirtemberg  and  Bavaria 
were  the  child's  godfathers  marked  the  decision  of 
those  States,  with  Baden  and  Hesse-Darmstadt,  to 
throw  in  their  lot  with  Prussia  in  the  war,  as  the 
deputies  of  the  North-German  Confederation  had 
also  done. 

The  christening  was  one  of  special  splendour 
and  solemnity,  the  two  outstanding  figures  in  the 
congregation  being  Bismarck,  in  his  uniform  of 
major  of  dragoons,  and  Field-Marshal  Wrangel, 
now  in  his  eighty-ninth  year.  Among  the  guests 
at  the  christening  were  Lord  Ronald  Gower  and 
"Billy"  Russell,  the  famous  war  correspondent. 
Two  or  three  days  before,  they  had  been  received 
by  the  Crown  Princess  at  the  New  Palace,  and 
Lord  Ronald  writes:  "The  Princess  expressed 
almost  terror  at  the  idea  of  the  war,  and  was 
deeply  aiFected  at  the  sufferings  it  must  bring 
with  it.  She  feared  the  brutality  of  Bazaine  and 
his  soldiers,  should  they  invade  Germany." 

After  the  christening.  King  William  and  Queen 
Augusta  held  a  kind  of  informal  court  in  the  curi- 
ous hall  known  as  the  Hall  of  the  Shells,  full  of 
memories  of  Frederick  the  Great.  Early  the  next 
morning  the  Crown  Prince  slipped  away  out  of  the 
palace  to  spare  his  wife  the  agony  of  parting. 

Even  at  such  a  moment  as  this,  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess's private  and  personal  anxieties  were  embit- 
tered by  circumstances  which  she  was  unable  to 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  WAR     229 

modify  or  affect.  Although  England  was  not  only 
ignorant,  but  was  to  remain,  like  the  rest  of  the 
world,  in  ignorance  for  many  years,  of  the  falsi- 
fication of  the  famous  Ems  telegram,  sympathy 
with  Germany  as  the  supposed  injured  party  in 
the  quarrel  was  by  no  means  universal. 

It  is  true  that  on  the  morrow  of  the  declaration 
of  war  the  Times  described  it  as  "unjust  but  pre- 
meditated— the  greatest  national  crime  that  we  have 
had  the  pain  of  recording  since  the  days  of  the  first 
French  Revolution."  Nevertheless,  France  by  no 
means,  lacked  sympathisers  in  England — indeed 
Crown  Princess  was  much  distressed  at  the  way  in 
which  her  native  country  interpreted  the  obligation 
of  neutrality.  The  Prussian  Government  consid- 
ered that  the  exportation  of  coal  and  arms  to  France 
was  a  breach  of  neutrality;  and  the  attitude  of  Eng- 
land during  the  Danish  War  was  still  remembered 
and  resented  in  Germany. 

Bismarck,  with  what  Europe  has  now  become 
aware  was  gross  hypocrisy,  observed  to  Lord  Au- 
gustus Loftus,  the  British  Ambassador  in  Berlin, 
that  "Great  Britain  should  have  forbidden  France 
to  enter  on  war.  She  was  in  a  position  to  do  so, 
and  her  interests  and  those  of  Europe  demanded  it 
of  her,"  a  sufliciently  cynical  observation  on  the  part 
of  a  man  who,  as  we  now  know,  had  himself  forced 
on  the  conflict  at  the  eleventh  hour. 

To  Queen  Victoria  the  Crown  Princess  con- 
fided her  troubles:     "The  English  are  more  hated 


280      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

at  this  moment  than  the  French,  and  Lord  Gran- 
ville more  than  Benedetti.  Of  course,  cela  a  re- 
jailli  on  my  poor  innocent  head.  I  have  fought 
many  a  battle  about  Lord  Granville,  indignant  at 
hearing  my  old  friend  so  attacked,  but  all  parties 
agree  in  making  him  out  French.  I  picked  a  quar- 
rel about  it  on  the  day  of  the  christening,  tired  and 
miserable  as  I  was.  I  sent  for  Bismarck  up  into 
my  room  on  purpose  to  say  my  say  about  Lord 
Granville,  but  he  would  not  believe  me,  and  said 
with  a  smile,  'But  his  acts  prove  it/  Many  other 
people  have  told  me  the  same.  Lord  A.  Loftus 
knows  it  quite  well.  Fritz,  of  course,  does  not  be- 
lieve it,  but  I  think  the  King  and  Queen  do." 

Meanwhile,  France  was  complaining  bitterly  of 
Lord  Granville's  "cold,  very  cold"  attitude.  Then 
suddenly,  on  July  25,  the  Times  published  a  draft 
secret  treaty  which  had  been  proposed  by  the  Em- 
peror Napoleon  to  Prussia  in  1866.  The  terms 
were — (1)  that  the  Emperor  should  recognise 
Prussia's  acquisitions  in  the  late  war;  (2)  the  King 
of  Prussia  should  promise  to  facilitate  the  acquisi- 
tion of  Luxemberg  by  France;  (3)  the  Emperor 
should  not  oppose  a  federal  union  of  the  Northern 
and  Southern  German  States,  excluding  Austria; 
(4)  the  King  of  Prussia,  in  case  the  Emperor 
should  enter  and  conquer  Belgium,  should  support 
him  in  arms  against  any  opposing  Power;  and  (5) 
France  and  Prussia  should  enter  into  an  offensive 
and  defensive  alliance. 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  WAR    231 

This  disclosure  caused  an  enormous  sensation, 
and  Queen  Victoria  was  much  shocked  at  the  ap- 
parent revelation  of  French  greed  and  duplicity. 
Writing  to  the  Queen,  the  Crown  Princess  ob- 
served: "Count  Bismarck  may  say  the  wildest 
things,  but  he  never  acts  in  a  foolish  way," — an 
interesting  pronouncement  when  one  remembers 
how  keen  had  been  and  was  to  be  the  struggle  be- 
tween these  two  powerful  and  determined  natures. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Bismarck  did  not  hesitate 
to  admit  that  the  document  was  authentic,  but  he 
insisted  that  he  had  never  seriously  entertained  the 
proposal,  which  came  entirely  from  the  Emperor. 
Not  long  afterwards,  on  the  day  of  the  battle  of 
Worth,  the  game  of  "revelations"  was  taken  up 
by  General  Turr,  who  disclosed  proposals  made  by 
Bismarck  in  1866  and  1867  for  the  annexation  of 
Luxemberg  and  Belgium  by  France. 

But  already  all  such  recriminations  and  discus- 
sions seemed  merely  of  academic  interest;  already 
everything  was  swept  from  the  mind  of  the  Crown 
Princess  save  the  necessity  for  hard  work  and  intel- 
ligent organisation.  With  an  ardour  natural  to  her 
generous  and  sympathetic  temperament  she  threw 
herself  into  everything  that  could  mitigate  the  suf- 
ferings and  promote  the  welfare  of  both  combatants 
and  non-combatants.  Prussia's  two  former  wars 
had  given  her  an  amount  of  experience  which  she 
was  now  able  to  turn  to  the  best  account.  Spon- 
taneously, without  any  advice  or  prompting  from 


232      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

others,  she  wrote  the  following  letter  to  the  whole 
German  world,  her  desire  being  to  touch  the  hearts, 
not  only  of  those  Germans  at  home,  but  also  of  those 
wjio  had  settled  overseas,  in  America  and  elsewhere : 

"Once  more  has  Germany  called  her  sons  to  take 
arms  for  her  most  sacred  possessions,  her  honour, 
and  her  independence.  A  foe,  whom  we  have  not 
molested,  begrudges  us  the  fruits  of  our  victories, 
the  development  of  our  national  industries  by  our 
peaceful  labour.  Insulted  and  injured  in  all  that 
is  most  dear  to  them,  our  German  people — for  they 
it  is  who  are  our  army — have  grasped  their  well- 
tried  arms,  and  have  gone  forth  to  protect  hearth, 
and  home,  and  family.  For  months  past,  thou- 
sands of  women  and  children  have  been  deprived  of 
their  bread-winners.  We  cannot  cure  the  sickness 
of  their  hearts,  but  at  least  we  can  try  to  preserve 
them  from  bodily  want.  During  the  last  war, 
which  was  brought  to  so  speedy,  and  so  fortunate, 
a  conclusion,  Germans  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe 
responded  nobly  when  called  upon  to  prove  their 
love  of  Fatherland  by  helping  to  relieve  the  suffer- 
ing. Let  us  join  hands  once  more,  and  prove  that 
we  are  able  and  willing  to  succour  the  families  of 
those  brave  men  who  are  ready  to  sacrifice  life  and 
limb  for  us!  Let  us  give  freely,  promptly,  that 
the  men  who  are  fighting  for  our  sacred  rights  may 
go  into  battle  with  the  comforting  assurance  that  at 
least  the  destinies  of  those  who  are  dearest  to  them 
are  confided  to  faithful  hands. 

"Victoria  Crown  Princess.*' 

This  eloquent  appeal  met  with  the  splendid  re- 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  WAR     233 

sponse  which  it  deserved,  and  although  practically 
every  German  Princess  of  the  time  took  a  more 
or  less  active  part  in  the  care  of  the  womided  and 
of  the  families  of  the  soldiers,  it  was  soon  reahsed 
that  the  Crown  Princess  was  the  master  mind  to 
whom  all  must  look  for  their  orders. 

Queen  Augusta  supervised  the  ambulance  and 
hospital  services  in  Berhn,  while  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess moved  to  Homburg  and  started  on  the  organ- 
isation of  a  series  of  field-lazareths,  being  most 
efficiently  helped  in  her  labours  by  her  sister. 
Princess  Alice,  who  herself  organised  and  actively 
supervised  four  field  hospitals  in  Darmstadt  itself. 

The  Crown  Princess  began  by  turning  the  old 
military  barracks  at  Homburg  into  a  hospital,  the 
existing  hospital  being  set  aside  for  the  use  of 
wounded  French  prisoners.  She  also  built  at  her 
own  expense  two  magnificent  wards,  and  they — 
doubtless  partly  because  they  were  new  buildings 
— showed  far  more  satisfactory  results  in  lower 
death-rate  and  shorter  convalescence  than  did  the 
wards  in  any  other  of  the  German  military  hos- 
pitals. 

The  Victoria  Barrack,  as  the  new  wards  were 
called,  was  built  of  wood  on  a  brick  foundation. 
In  addition  to  the  wards,  the  building  contained  a 
good  store-room,  lined  with  glass  cupboards,  in 
which  was  kept  a  quantity  of  old  linen  which  Queen 
Victoria  had  sent  for  the  wounded.  Each  ward 
contained  twenty-four  beds.     A  feature  which  the 


234      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

German  doctors  and  nurses  regarded  with  decidedly- 
mixed  feelings  was  a  system  of  ventilation  which 
enabled  the  whole  building  to  be  opened  from  end 
to  end  when  required. 

By  the  Crown  Princess's  orders,  the  very  simplest 
and  plainest  appliances  compatible  with  health  and 
comfort  were  used.  Thus  the  necessary  furniture 
was  all  of  varnished  deal.  By  her  wish,  too,  a  great 
effort  was  made  to  give  a  bright  and  homelike  ap- 
pearance to  each  ward,  and  this,  like  the  special 
ventilation,  was  quite  a  new  idea  to  both  German 
patients  and  German  doctors.  In  the  corners  of 
each  ward  stood  large  evergreen  shrubs,  and  on 
every  table  were  placed  cut  flowers  in  glasses. 
Whenever  the  Crown  Princess  received  a  personal 
gift  of  flowers,  she  immediately  sent  it  off  to  the 
hospital,  often  bringing  a  bouquet  and  arranging  it 
herself.  Nothing  in  the  Victoria  Barrack  was  used 
which  could  conceal  any  dirt;  for  instance,  the 
crockery  was  white  and  the  glass  plain. 

The  Crown  Princess  attended  the  military  hos- 
pitals daily.  She  went  through  every  ward,  and 
spoke  to  every  patient;  and  she  was  quite  as  regu- 
lar in  her  attendance  on  the  wards  containing  the 
French  prisoners  as  she  was  on  those  where  the 
German  soldiers  lay.  In  this  way  she  came  into 
personal  association  with  ordinary  people  of  a  class 
of  whom  Princesses  see  as  a  rule  little  or  nothing. 
With  many  of  the  soldiers  who  were  then  tended 
under  her  supervision  and  care  she  kept  in  touch 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  WAR     235 

long  after  the  war  was  ended — indeed,  she  was  al- 
ways eager  to  help  in  after  life  any  of  those  whom 
she  had  known  at  Homburg,  or  who  had  fought  un- 
der her  husband's  orders. 

But  the  Crown  Princess  did  far  more  than  the 
work  associated  with  her  name  at  Homburg.  It 
was  owing  to  her  promptness  and  her  energy  that 
a  long  line  of  military  hospitals  was  rapidly  organ- 
ised along  the  whole  of  the  Rhine  Valley. 

At  the  end  of  the  campaign  of  1866  the  Crown 
Prince  and  Princess  had  founded  the  National  In- 
stitution for  Disabled  Soldiers,  and  by  the  special 
order  of  the  King  it  was  given  the  name  of  the  Vic- 
toria Institution,  because  the  Crown  Princess  had 
suggested  and  instigated  its  creation.  At  the  close 
of  1871,  this  Institution,  again  at  her  suggestion, 
was  placed  upon  a  wider  footing,  and  applied  to  the 
whole  of  Germany  instead  of  only  to  Prussia. 

There  is  no  need  here  to  describe  the  course  of 
the  war  itself.  A  vast  literature,  both  technical 
and  general,  has  grown  up  round  it,  and  there  are 
many  people  by  no  means  yet  old  who  remember 
vividly  that  immense  and  sanguinary  struggle.  To 
the  Crown  Prince  was  assigned  the  command  of 
the  Third  Army,  in  which  nearly  every  State  of 
both  North  and  South  Germany  was  represented, 
including  the  Bavarian  Corps  and  the  Divisions  of 
Wiirtemberg  and  Baden.  Once  more  the  Prince 
proved  his  fitness  for  high  command,  perhaps  most 
notably  at  the  battle  of  Worth,  when  his  admirable 


236      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

dispositions  and  his  unhesitating  resolve  that  even 
the  last  man  must  if  necessary  be  staked  were  the 
main  causes  of  the  victory.  Yet  the  Crown  Prince 
said  to  the  great  German  writer,  Freytag,  who  was 
with  him  in  this  early  part  of  the  war: 

"I  hate  this  slaughter.  I  have  never  desired  the 
honours  of  war,  and  would  gladly  have  left  such 
glory  to  others.  Nevertheless,  it  is  my  hard  fate 
to  go  from  battlefield  to  battlefield,  from  one  war  to 
another,  before  ascending  the  throne  of  my  ances- 
tors." 

Much  as  he  hated  war,  the  Crown  Prince  never 
hesitated,  as  weak  commanders  have  always  done, 
to  pay  the  necessary  price  of  victory  in  human 
lives.  Among  the  troops,  "Unser  Fritz,"  as  they 
called  him,  quickly  became  extraordinarily  popular 
— indeed,  their  devotion  to  their  leader  formed  a 
strong  and  politically  useful  link  between  men  who 
had  actually  fought  against  one  another  so  recently 
as  the  Austrian  War. 

Throughout  the  campaign,  the  Crown  Prince 
and  Princess  corresponded  daily.  The  siege  of 
Paris  had  begun  on  September  15,  and  the  Crown 
Prince  was  at  Versailles  on  his  birthday,  on  Octo- 
ber 18,  almost  the  first  birthday  he  had  spent  away 
from  his  wife  since  their  marriage.  When  he  woke 
in  the  morning  he  found  on  his  table  a  small  pocket- 
pistol,  and  a  housewife,  filled  with  articles  for  daily 
use,  from  the  Crown  Princess. 

There  is  a  very  interesting  ghmpse  of  the  Crown 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  WAR     237 

Princess  in  December  1870,  that  is,  during  the  mid- 
dle of  the  war,  in  Prince  Hohenlohe's  Memoirs. 
He  was  asked  to  lunch  with  her,  and  they  had  a  long 
talk  about  public  affairs.  The  Princess  was  very- 
dissatisfied  concerning  the  proposed  Convention 
with  Bavaria,  and  it  seemed  to  the  statesman  that 
both  she  and  Princess  Alice  were  enthusiastic  for 
the  idea  of  a  united  Empire  without  any  exception, 
and  that  neither  sister  liked  the  proposal  of  federa- 
tion. The  Crown  Princess  listened  attentively, 
however,  to  Hohenlohe's  defence  of  the  special  na- 
ture and  justification  of  the  Bavarian  claims,  but 
it  is  evident  that  she  agreed  with  her  husband  on  the 
question  of  coercing  the  Bavarians,  if  it  should  be 
necessary^ 

The  two  sisters  were  together  as  much  as  was 
possible  during  those  terrible  months  of  hard  work 
and  anxiety.  Princess  Alice  spent  half  of  the  De- 
cember of  1870  in  Berlin,  and  wrote  to  her  mother: 
"It  is  a  great  comfort  to  be  with  dear  Vicky.  We 
spend  the  evenings  alone  together,  talking  or  writ- 
ing our  letters.  It  is  nearly  five  months  since  Louis 
left,  and  we  lead  such  single  existences  that  a  sister 
is  inexpressibly  dear  when  all  closer  intercourse  is 
so  wanting!" 

On  Christmas  Eve  there  arrived  at  the  house  at 
Versailles  where  the  Crown  Prince  was  then  living 
a  huge  chest,  and  he  asked  his  hostess  and  her  fam- 
ily to  share  his  Christmas  cake,  "for,"  said  he,  "this 
cake  was  baked  by  my  wife,  and  you  will  much 


238      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

oblige  me  by  tasting  it."  He  then  chatted  to  them 
about  the  Christmas  festival  in  his  own  happy 
household,  and  translated  the  letters  of  the  Crown 
Princess  and  of  his  two  elder  children.  Long  aft- 
erwards this  lady  wrote  to  a  friend  a  letter  whidti 
has  since  been  published: 

"In  those  fateful  days  we  learnt  to  know  the  good 
and  open  heart  of  the  late  Emperor.  We  were  for- 
tunate indeed  to  be  under  the  protection  of  that 
stately  and  friendly  gentleman,  who  appeared  to 
us,  as  we  now  think  of  him,  to  have  been  a  good 
genius  who  warded  off  mischief  from  our  house- 
hold." 

The  Crown  Princess  was  accused  of  having  in- 
terfered to  prevent  the  bombardment  of  Paris. 
Thus  Busch  writes  on  December  24,  1870: 

"Bucher  told  us  at  lunch  he  had  heard  from 
Berlin  that  the  Queen  and  the  Crown  Princess  had 
become  very  unpopular,  owing  to  their  interven- 
tion on  behalf  of  Paris;  and  that  the  Princess,  in 
the  course  of  a  conversation  with  Putbus,  struck 
the  table  and  exclaimed:  'For  all  that,  Paris  shall 
not  be  bombarded !'  " 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  though  both  Moltke  and  the 
Crown  Prince  considered  that  the  right  tactics 
would  be  to  starve  out  Paris  by  a  strict  investment, 
the  bombardment,  which  was  urged  by  Bismarck 
for  pohtical  reasons,  was  delayed,  not  by  any  slack- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  Third  Army,  but  simply 
by  insufficient  preparation  of  the  siege-train  in  Ber- 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  WAR    239 

lin.  The  Crown  Princess  suffered  bitterly  from 
Bismarck.  She  knew  well  that  he  was  indispensa- 
ble, the  man  of  the  hour,  but  he  would  never  trust 
her.  He  often  held  back  important  political  news 
from  the  Crown  Prince  for  fear  it  should  leak  out 
through  the  Crown  Princess  to  England.  In  this 
he  did  her  an  injustice  so  gross  that  it  could  not  be 
atoned  for  by  his  own  tardy  acknowledgment  of 
the  fact  in  Thoughts  and  Remembrances. 

On  January  25,  1871,  we  learn  from  Busch  that 
Bismarck  said  of  the  English  who  wanted  to  send 
a  gunboat  up  the  Seine  to  remove  the  English  fam- 
ilies there : 

"They  merely  want  to  ascertain  if  we  have  laid 
down  torpedoes  and  then  to  let  the  French  ships 
follow  them.  What  swine !  They  are  full  of  vex- 
ation and  envy  because  we  have  fought  great  bat- 
tles here — and  won  them.  They  cannot  bear  to 
think  that  shabby  little  Prussia  should  prosper  so. 
The  Prussians  are  a  people  who  should  merely  ex- 
ist in  order  to  carry  on  war  for  them  in  their  pay. 
This  is  the  view  taken  by  all  the  upper  classes  in 
England.  They  have  never  been  well  disposed 
towards  us,  and  have  always  done  their  utmost  to 
immure  us.  The  Crown  Princess  herself  is  an  in- 
carnation of  this  way  of  thinking.  She  is  full  of 
her  own  great  condescension  in  marrying  into  our 
country.  I  remember  her  once  telling  me  that  two 
or  three  merchant  families  in  Liverpool  had  more 
silver-plate    than    the    entire    Prussian    nobility. 


240      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

'Yes,'  I  replied,  'that  is  possibly  true,  your  Royal 
Highness,  but  we  value  ourselves  for  other  things 
besides  silver.'  " 

After  the  capitulation  of  Sedan,  the  Crown 
Prince  issued  from  Rheims  an  appeal  for  the 
wounded  soldiers  and  the  relatives  of  the  killed  and 
wounded.  In  it  he  spoke  of  his  happiness  in  com- 
manding in  the  field  an  army  in  which  Prussians 
fought  side  by  side  with  Bavarians,  Wiirtem- 
bergers,  and  men  of  Baden,  and  declared  that  the 
war  had  created  one  German  Army  and  had  also 
unified  the  nation. 

Later  on,  when  the  German  armies  sat  down 
before  Paris,  the  Crown  Prince  allotted  some  of 
the  large  rooms  of  the  Palace  of  Versailles  for  a 
hospital,  and  himself  supervised  the  arrangements. 
All  through  the  war,  indeed,  he  showed  the  keenest 
interest  in  the  hospital  service,  and  was  constant  in 
his  visits  to  the  wounded  soldiers.  Here  we  may 
trace  the  influence  of  his  wife,  who  eagerly  awaited 
all  that  he  could  tell  her  in  his  letters  about  poor 
men  to  whom  her  woman's  heart  went  out  with  such 
ardent  sympathy.  The  Crown  Prince  took  pains 
to  supply  the  patients  with  interesting  reading,  and 
at  his  suggestion  the  editor  of  a  Berlin  Liberal 
paper  sent  many  hundreds  of  copies  of  it  daily  to 
the  military  hospitals.  This,  however,  was  not  ap- 
proved at  headquarters,  and  an  order  was  actually 
issued  by  von  Roon,  forbidding  the  distribution  of 
the  paper.  , 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  WAR    241 

Such  incidents  illustrate  the  difficulties  with 
which  both  the  Crown  Prince  and  the  Princess  had 
to  contend.  The  presence  at  Versailles,  not  only 
of  the  King  and  Bismarck,  but  of  a  cohort  of  Ger- 
man princes  with  their  retinues,  as  well  as  numerous 
diplomatists,  Ministers,  and  other  official  person- 
ages, did  not  make  the  Crown  Prince's  position 
easier.  He  had  been  raised  after  the  fall  of  Metz 
to  the  highest  rank  in  the  army,  that  of  General 
Field-Marshal,  the  promotion  being  communicated 
to  him  in  a  letter  from  his  father  bearing  grateful 
testimony  to  his  brilliant  successes  in  the  field,  nota- 
bly the  strategic  advance  by  which  he  covered  the 
left  of  the  main  army  and  enabled  it  to  overcome 
Bazaine's  forces.  But  this  elevation  in  rank  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  of  much  practical  value  to 
him. 

Naturally  both  the  Crown  Prince  and  the  Crown 
Princess  took  the  keenest  interest  in  the  question 
of  the  Imperial  title. 

By  the  end  of  November,  1870,  Baden,  Hesse- 
Darmstadt,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Bavaria  had  all 
joined  the  North-German  Confederation  by  treaty. 
Early  in  December,  the  King  of  Bavaria,  in  a  letter 
to  the  King  of  Saxony  which  was  really  written  by 
Bismarck,  nominated  the  King  of  Prussia  as 
Emperor  of  Germany,  and  the  North-German 
Parliament,  after  voting  large  supphes  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  war,  adopted  by  an  overwhelming 
majority  an  address  requesting  the  King  to  become 


242      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Emperor.  His  brother  and  predecessor  had  re- 
fused the  Imperial  crown  proffered  him  by  the 
Frankfort  Parhament,  on  the  ground  that  the 
legal  title  was  insufficient,  but  now  that  the  dignity 
was  tendered  by  the  Sovereigns  and  the  people  of 
Germany,  it  was  not  possible  for  the  King  to  refuse. 

IN'either  the  King  himself,  however,  nor  the  older 
Prussian  nobility  liked  the  change,  which,  it  was 
feared,  might  transform  the  almost  parsimonious 
austerity  of  the  Prussian  Court  into  something  like 
the  pomp  and  extravagance  with  which  other  sov- 
ereigns had  surrounded  themselves.  Bismarck, 
who  considered  all  such  matters  as  titles  and  heral- 
dic pomp  to  be  only  important  because  they  in- 
fluence men's  minds,  was  disposed  to  agree  with  his 
Sovereign's  feelings,  but  it  was  the  corner-stone 
of  his  policy  to  conciliate  the  South  German  States. 

To  the  Crown  Prince,  on  the  other  hand,  with 
his  strongly  idealistic  nature  and  his  highly  devel- 
oped historical  imagination,  the  conception  of  the 
Empire  won  by  the  sword  made  an  irresistible  ap- 
peal. He  was  ready  to  see  in  it  a  revival  of  the 
old  Empire,  by  which  the  King  of  Prussia  should 
be,  not  first  among  his  peers,  but  the  overlord  of  all 
Germany. 

It  is  significant,  however,  that  King  William 
was  proclaimed,  in  the  Hall  of  Mirrors  at  Ver- 
sailles, not  Emperor  of  Germany,  but  German  Em- 
peror. This  was  on  January  18,  1871,  the  anni- 
versary of  the  day  on  which  the  first  King  of 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  WAR     243 

Prussia  had  crowned  himself  at  Konigsberg.  The 
Crown  Prince  supervised  all  the  arrangements  for 
the  ceremony,  and  it  was  his  idea  to  form  a  kind  of 
trophy  of  the  colours  of  the  regiments  which  had 
won  glory  at  Worth  and  Weissenburg,  Mars-la- 
Tour,  Gravelotte,  and  Sedan.  Before  this  trophy 
the  King  pronounced  the  establishment  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire.  On  the  same  day  by  Imperial 
rescript  the  new  Emperor  conferred  on  the  Crown 
Prince  and  on  his  successors  as  heir  apparent  the 
title  of  Imperial  Highness. 

The  preliminaries  of  peace  were  not  signed  till 
February  26,  and  we  have,  in  a  letter  written  two 
days  later  by  his  friend,  Herr  Abeken,  an  interest- 
ing glimpse  of  the  feelings  with  which  the  Crown 
Prince  regarded  these  great  events,  and  also  the 
reliance  which  he  placed  on  the  aid  of  his  wife. 
The  Crown  Prince  told  Abeken  that  he  was  fully 
conscious  of  the  tremendous  responsibility  now  in- 
cumbent on  him.  It  was  thrice  as  great  as  that 
which  lay  on  him  as  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia,  but 
he  did  not  shrink  from  it.  God  had  already  given 
him  a  blessed  help  and  support  in  his  wife,  by  whose 
assistance  he  hoped  to  fulfil  his  great  work. 

The  Crown  Prince  had  the  satisfaction  of  leaving 
behind  him  in  France  as  friendly  feelings  towards 
him  personally  as  could  well  be  entertained  by  the 
vanquished  for  a  victorious  foe.  He  had  distin- 
guished himself  among  the  German  leaders  by  his 
moderation  in  victory,  by  his  stern  repression  of 


244      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

excesses,  and  by  his  chivalrous  tributes  to  the 
bravery  of  his  enemies. 

The  Crown  Princess,  absorbed  in  her  labours 
among  the  suffering  soldiers,  was  scarcely  aware 
at  the  time  of  the  venomous  feelings  still  cherished 
against  her  in  Prussia,  and  it  was  with  an  exultant 
heart — as  "German"  as  her  most  captious  and  sus- 
picious critics  could  have  wished — ^that  she  wel- 
comed the  conclusion  of  the  great  conflict. 

Berlin  was  reached  on  March  17,  1871,  though 
no  ofiicial  reception  then  took  place,  the  Royal 
carriage  in  which  the  new  Emperor  and  the  Crown 
Prince  were  to  be  seen  side  by  side,  could  only  pro- 
ceed at  foot's  pace  through  the  dense  masses  who 
crowded  the  streets. 

Later,  in  response  to  the  call  of  the  great  crowd 
who  thronged  about  his  palace,  a  window  opened, 
and  the  Crown  Prince  was  seen  in  the  midst  of  his 
family  beside  the  Crown  Princess,  with  his  youngest 
child,  the  little  Princess  who  had  been  born  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war  in  his  arms. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PUBLIC  AND  PRIVATE  ACTIVITIES 

When  the  great  struggle  was  over  at  last  and 
peace  was  declared,  the  Crown  Princess  had  a 
pleasant  opportunity  of  exercising  the  generosity 
and  delicacy  which  formed  perhaps  the  most  not- 
able part  of  her  many-sided  and  impulsive  char- 
acter. 

M.  Thiers  had  sent  to  Berlin  as  French  Ambas- 
sador the  Comte  de  Gontaut  Biron.  Although 
allied  by  birth  to  several  great  German  families, 
M.  de  Gontaut,  as  he  was  generally  styled,  found 
his  position  in  Berlin  a  very  painful  one.  France 
lay  in  the  dust  at  the  feet  of  the  only  real  con- 
queror she  had  ever  known.  The  whole  of  the 
huge  war  indemnity  had  not  yet  been  paid  off,  and 
French  territory  was  not  yet  free  from  the  foot 
of  the  invader.  There  were  also  all  kinds  of  com- 
paratively unimportant,  yet  vexatious  and  an- 
noying, outstanding  points  which  still  awaited 
settlement,  and  till  these  were  arranged  Germany 
refused  to  give  up  certain  prisoners  confined  in 
German  fortresses. 

Moreover,  Bismarck,  though  outwardly  concilia- 
tory and  courteous,  did  not  seek  to  spare  the  French 
Ambassador  as  a  more  generous  and  sensitive  foe 
would  have  done.     M.  de  Gontaut  was  actually 

245 


246      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

expected  to  be  present  at  each  of  the  splendid  Court 
and  military  fetes  which  were  then  being  given 
to  celebrate  the  foundation  of  the  new  German 
Empire  for  the  victorious  return  of  the  Prussian 
Army  to  the  capital. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  his  difficult  task,  the 
Ambassador  found  firm  and  kind  friends  in  the 
Crown  Prince  and  Princess.  On  the  occasion  of 
his  first  audience  the  Crown  Princess  came  forward 
with  kindly,  eager  words,  telling  him  that  she  and 
her  husband  had  just  read  with  the  greatest 
pleasure  the  memoirs  of  his  grandmother,  that 
Duchess  de  Gontaut  who,  as  Gouvernante  of  the 
Royal  children,  played  so  great  a  part  in  the  Revo- 
lution, and  later,  in  the  Restoration.  The  Prin- 
cess went  on  to  speak  of  her  intense  satisfaction 
and  relief  at  the  declaration  of  peace  and  she  con- 
cluded with  the  words:  "We  know  that  you  have 
made  a  great  sacrifice  in  coming  to  Berlin ;  and  we 
will  do  everything  in  our  power  to  make  your  task 
less  painful." 

When  M.  de  Gontaut  was  later  joined  by  his 
daughter,  the  Crown  Princess  did  all  she  could  to 
make  the  daily  life  of  this  young  French  lady  as 
agreeable  as  was  possible  in  the  circumstances,  and 
in  this  she  had  the  warm  sympathy  and  assistance 
of  the  Empress  Augusta,  who,  as  we  know,  had 
many  old  and  afi*ectionate  links  with  the  Legitimist 
world  to  which  the  Ambassador  belonged. 

The  Crown  Princess's  youngest  child,  who  after- 


ACTIVITIES  247 

wards  married  Prince  Frederick  Charles  of  Hesse, 
was  born  on  April  22,  1872,  and  was  christened 
Margaret  Beatrice  Feodora — Margaret  after  the 
Queen  of  Italy,  whom  the  child's  parents  both  re- 
garded with  warm  affection. 

Queen  Margherita  came  to  Berlin  for  the  cere- 
mony, and  a  great  fete  was  given  at  the  New  Pal- 
ace. It  was  more  like  an  English  garden  party 
than  anything  previously  known  at  the  Prussian 
Court,  but  the  Crown  Princess  had  a  way  of 
making  her  own  precedents.  She  caused  invita- 
tions to  be  sent,  not  only  to  the  nobiUty  and  the 
hosts  of  officials  who  had  a  prescriptive  right  to 
be  present  at  such  a  function,  but  also  to  persons 
who  were  merely  distinguished  for  their  literary, 
artistic,  or  scientific  achievements. 

The  months  which  followed  ushered  in  a  peace- 
ful period  of  happiness  and  rest  for  the  Princess. 
Her  magnificent  work  during  the  war  had  won  her 
warm  friends  and  admirers  in  every  class,  but  of 
more  moment  to  her  than  her  own  personal  popu- 
larity was  that  enjoyed  by  the  Crown  Prince,  whose 
relations  with  the  military  party  now  became  much 
pleasanter  in  consequence  of  his  achievements  in 
the  field  and  the  enthusiastic  devotion  felt  for  himr 
throughout  the  army. 

Unfortunately  for  the  Crown  Prince  and  Prin- 
cess, Bismarck's  position  had  been  even  more  radi- 
cally transformed  by  the  war,  and  the  Minister's 
domination  over  his  already  aging  sovereign  grew 


248      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

more  and  more  obvious.  It  was  an  open  secret 
that  the  Emperor  and  his  heir  differed  on  many- 
important  questions,  and  the  gulf  between  them 
was  sedulously  widened  by  Bismarck's  jealous 
prejudice  against  the  Crown  Prince.  Incidents 
that  would  have  been  in  ordinary  circumstances  too 
slight  to  mention  now  revealed,  even  to  strangers, 
the  friction  which  was  symptomatic  of  deeper  dis- 
agreement. 

The  Crown  Prince,  as  we  have  seen,  set  much 
store  by  the  new  Imperial  honours  which  the  war 
had  brought  to  his  House,  and  he  was  always  very 
punctilious  in  speaking  of  his  father  as  "Emperor" 
and  of  his  mother  as  "Empress."  The  Emperor, 
however,  habitually  still  spoke  of  himself  as  "King" 
and  of  the  Empress  as  "Queen."  The  story  goes 
that  on  one  occasion  the  Emperor,  addressing  some 
lady  in  the  presence  of  his  son,  observed  that  it  was 
extraordinarily  mild  for  the  time  of  year,  and  that 
"the  Queen"  had  brought  him  some  spring  flowers 
which  she  had  picked  out  of  doors  that  morning. 
The  Crown  Prince  answered,  "Yes,  so  the  Empress 
told  me."  "I  did  not  know  you  had  already  seen 
the  Queen  to-day,"  remarked  his  father. 

The  experiences  she  had  just  gone  through  had 
shown  the  Crown  Princess  the  inadequacy  of  the 
existing  hospital  organisation  in  Germany.  From 
her  point  of  view,  and  from  that  of  the  English 
ladies  who  had  rendered  her  such  great  assistance 
in  creating — it  was  nothing  less — the  Army  Nurs- 


ACTIVITIES  249 

ing  Service,  a  more  scientific  training  for  nurses 
was  evidently  the  first  necessity;  and  in  securing 
this  she  was  particularly  helped  by  Miss  Lees, 
afterwards  Mrs.  Dacre  Craven,  who  had  been  a 
friend  and  associate  of  Miss  Nightingale. 

In  1867  the  Crown  Princess  had  drawn  up  a 
memorandum  in  which  she  laid  it  down  that  the 
best  nurses  would  prove  to  be  those  who  would 
combine  the  obedience  of  the  Catholic  Sisterhoods 
with  a  more  scientific  and  comprehensive  training. 
The  Kaiserwerth  Institution,  where  Florence 
Nightingale  had  gained  valuable  experience,  did 
not  give  a  sufficiently  scientific  education,  and  she 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  a  nursing  school  must 
be  established  in  Berlin,  where  ladies,  who  should 
be  given  a  distinguishing  dress  and  badge,  should 
be  trained.  The  outbreak  of  the  war  of  1870  in- 
terrupted this  scheme,  but  now  that  the  pressing 
emergency  was  over,  the  Princess  returned  to  her 
old  scheme,  the  fundamental  principle  of  which 
was  that  it  should  be  carried  out  by  educated  and 
refined  gentlewomen,  preferably  orphans.  They 
were  to  have  a  three  years'  theoretical  and  practi- 
cal couriSe,  followed  by  a  course  of  monthly  nursing, 
and  were  to  pass  an  examination  to  test  their  pro- 
ficiency. 

In  the  face  of  strong  opposition,  both  on  the 
part  of  the  medical  profession  and  of  the  middle 
classes  in  Germany,  the  Princess  organised  this 
society  of  trained  lady  nurses,  who  tended  the  sick 


250      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

poor  in  their  own  homes.  The  society  began  in  a 
very  quiet,  humble  way^  but  now  you  could  not  find 
a  German,  man  or  woman,  who  would  not  admit 
that  this  was  a  splendid  addition  to  the  philan- 
thropic institutions  of  the  country.  The  Princess 
also  founded  a  society  for  sending  the  sick  children 
of  poor  parents  out  of  the  larger  towns  into  the 
country  or  to  the  seaside. 

It  need  hardly  be  pointed  out  that  in  each  of 
these  cases  the  Crown  Princess  copied  peculiarly 
British  institutions,  and  this  no  doubt  was  partly 
why  they  aroused  such  indignant  opposition. 

All  through  her  life  one  of  the  Princess's  mental 
peculiarities  was  that  of  thinking  it  impossible  that 
any  reasoning  human  being  could  object  to  any- 
thing that  was  obviously  in  itself  a  good  and  wise 
measure.  To  oppose  a  scheme  simply  because  the 
idea  of  it  had  first  originated  in  England  or  in 
France  was  something  that  she  could  not  under- 
stand, so  far  removed  was  she  from  certain  little- 
nesses of  human  nature,  as  well  as  from  the  domin- 
ion of  national  and  racial  prejudice. 

The  Crown  Princess,  and  in  this  also  she  was 
warmly  supported  by  her  husband's  approval  and 
sympathy,  wished  the  new  Empire  to  bestow  more 
recognition  on  those  Germans  who  had  attained 
distinction  in  the  arts  of  peace  rather  than  of  war. 
Encouraged  by  the  knowledge  that  her  work  dur- 
ing the  country's  wars  had  at  last  won  a  measure 
of  national  understanding  and  gratitude,  she  again 


ACTIVITIES  251 

did  every  thing  in  her  power  to  break  down  the  old 
Prussian  Court  barrier  between  the  "born"  and  the 
"not  born."  But,  as  might  have  been  predicted, 
the  Princess's  efforts  were  fairly  successful  as  re- 
gards the  latter,  though  not  as  regards  the  former. 

To  German  women  of  all  classes,  the  Princess's 
interest  in  science  seemed  both  eccentric  and  un- 
feminine.  She  had  attended,  when  still  a  very 
young  woman,  some  lectures  given  in  Berlin  by 
the  great  chemist,  Hoffmann,  who  dedicated  to 
her,  in  later  years,  his  book,  Remembrances  of  Past 
Friends — a  compliment  which  pleased  and  touched 
her  very  much. 

Her  practical  love  of  art  was  also  regarded  as 
uncalled  for  in  a  Royal  lady  and  indeed  unnatural 
in  the  mother  of  a  large  young  family.  She  had 
a  studio  built  in  the  palace,  where  she  worked  under 
the  teaching  of  Professor  Hagen,  and  she  also 
studied  under  von  Angeli.  She  was  fond  of  visit- 
ing the  studios  of  Berlin  painters,  particularly  of 
the  two  Begas,  of  Oscar  the  painter,  and  Reinhold 
the  sculptor,  where  she  sometimes  made  studies  as 
a  student,  and  where  she  sometimes  was  herself  the 
study.  She  and  her  husband  were  always  great 
friends  of  the  various  artists.  Among  the  names 
that  recur  constantly  in  this  connection  are  those 
of  Anton  von  Werner,  to  one  of  whose  children  the 
Crown  Prince  was  godfather,  and  Georg  Bleibtreu. 

The  New  Palace  in  Berlin  was  nicknamed  "The 
Palace  of  the  Medicis,"  because  of  the  enthusiastic 


252      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

encouragement  which  its  owners  always  gave  to 
what  they  believed  to  be  genius,  or  even  talent. 
The  Crown  Princess  not  only  entertained  persons 
of  distinction  in  art  and  literature,  but,  what  was 
less  easily  forgiven  her,  any  foreign  scientists  and 
artists  of  eminence  who  came  to  Berlin,  were  eag- 
erly invited  by  her,  generally  to  informal  tea- 
parties. 

But  in  time  even  the  Princess  realised  that  it  was 
hopeless  to  try  to  blend  the  two  elements.  Un- 
fortunately, she  never  took  the  trouble  to  hide  her 
preference  for  people  who  interested  and  amused 
her  to  those  who  were  merely  "hoiFahige."  The 
Prussian  nobility  were  amazed  and  affronted  that 
a  Prussian  princess  should  esteem  so  lightly  the 
possession  of  numerous  quarterings,  and  it  was  a 
bitter  grievance  that  their  future  sovereign  and  his 
consort  actually  preferred  the  society  of  painters 
and  musicians  and  similar  persons  whom  they  re- 
garded as  nobodies. 

At  the  same  time,  she  was  always  on  cordial  and 
pleasant  terms  with  diplomatists,  who  as  a  rule 
combine  the  advantages  of  good  birth  with  intelli- 
gence and  culture  and  the  most  delightful  of  pro- 
fessions. For  many  years  of  her  life  her  greatest 
personal  friends  were  Lord  Ampthill  (at  the  time 
Lord  Odo  Russell)  and  his  wife,  a  daughter  of 
that  Lord  Clarendon  who  had  expressed  so  high 
an  admiration  of  the  Princess  Royal's  mental  gifts. 

But  perhaps  the  Crown  Princess  most  surprised 


ACTIVITIES  253 

and  offended  her  husband's  future  subjects  by  her 
pro-Jewish  attitude.  In  this  she  showed  extraor- 
dinary courage  and  breadth  of  view.  For  ex- 
ample, she  accepted  the  patronage  of  the  Auerbach 
schools  for  the  education  of  Jewish  orphans,  and 
that  at  a  time  when  the  whole  of  Berlin,  from  the 
great  official  world  to  the  humblest  tradesman,  was 
taking  part  in  the  Judenhetze. 

The  Crown  Princess  was  indeed,  as  we  have  seen, 
extremely  broad-minded  in  matters  of  religion. 
She  heartily  despised  the  type  of  mind  which  at- 
tacks Jews  as  Jews,  or  Catholics  as  Catholics.  She 
showed  this  in  March,  1873,  when  she  spoke 
strongly  to  Prince  Hohenlohe  about  the  hostile 
policy  the  Prussian  Government  was  then  pursu- 
ing towards  his  church.  She  observed  that  in  her 
opinion  those  called  upon  to  govern  should  in- 
fluence the  education  of  the  people,  as  that  of  itself 
would  make  them  independent  of  the  hierarchy, 
and  she  added:  'T  count  upon  the  intelligence  of 
the  people;  that  is  the  great  power."  But  Hohen- 
lohe drily  answered:  "A  much  greater  power  is 
human  stupidity,  of  which  we  must  take  account 
in  our  calculations  before  everything." 

What  we  should  call  the  middle  classes  were  in- 
censed by  certain  other  activities  of  the  future  Em- 
press. From  the  very  first  the  Crown  Princess 
had  been  ardently  desirous  of  improving  the  posi- 
tion of  the  women  of  her  adopted  country.  But 
the  German  woman  of  that  day  was  quite  content 


254      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

with  the  place  she  then  held,  both  in  the  public 
esteem  and  in  the  consideration  of  her  menfolk; 
the  fact  that  in  youth  she  was  surrounded  with  an 
atmosphere  of  sentimental  adoration  made  up,  in 
her  opinion,  for  the  way  she  was  treated  in  old  age 
and  in  middle  age. 

Even  so,  the  efforts  made  by  the  Crown  Princess 
in  time  bore  fruit.  They  comprised  the  Victoria 
Lyceum,  founded  in  June,  1869,  but  placed — and 
here  one  reluctantly  perceives  a  certain  want  of 
tact  on  the  part  of  the  foundress — under  the  direc- 
tion of  an  English  lady.  There  were  also,  under 
the  special  patronage  of  the  Crown  Princess,  Frau- 
lein  Letze's  school  for  girls  of  the  upper  classes, 
iand  the  Letteverein.  Other  educational  establish- 
ments which  owed  much  to  her  sympathy  and  direct 
encouragement  were  the  Victoria  and  Frederick 
William  Institute,  and  the  Pestalozzi-Froebel 
House,  and  these  are  only  a  few  of  the  educational 
establishments  in  which  she  took  an  active  and  per- 
sonal interest.  Perhaps  the  most  admirable  of 
them  all  was  the  Victoria  Fortbildung-schule, 
which  gave  girls  the  means  of  continuing  their  edu- 
cation after  they  had  left  school. 

In  another  matter  concerning  the  education  of 
women  the  Crown  Princess  was  violently  opposed 
to  German  public  opinion.  She  was  a  firm  be- 
liever in  the  value  of  gymnastic  exercises  and  out- 
door games  for  girls,  and  that  at  a  time  when  they 
were  practically  unknown  in  Prussia.     The  first 


ACTIVITIES  255 

lawn-tennis  net  ever  seen  in  Germany  was  put  up 
in  the  grounds  of  the  New  Palace  at  Potsdam,  and 
she  was  unceasing  in  her  efforts  to  introduce  gym- 
nasiums into  girls'  schools. 

In  the  winter  of  1872,  the  Crown  Prince  fell  ill 
of  an  internal  inflammation,  and  though  the  critical 
period  was  soon  over,  he  took  a  long  time  to  recover 
his  strength.  Margaretha  von  Poschinger  repro- 
duces in  her  life  of  him  an  extraordinary  utterance 
said  by  the  Rheinische  Kurier  to  have  been  made 
by  the  Crown  Prince  to  his  wife  at  this  time: 

"The  doctors  say  that  my  illness  is  dangerous. 
As  my  father  is  old,  and  Prince  William  is  still  a 
minor,  you  may  not  improbably  be  called  upon  to 
act  temporarily  as  Regent.  You  must  promise 
me  to  do  nothing  without  Prince  Bismarck,  whose 
policy  has  lifted  our  House  to  a  power  and  great- 
ness of  which  we  could  not  have  dreamed." 

The  interest  of  this  is  considerable  if  we  could 
be  sure  that  it  was  authentic,  and  not  simply  what 
the  newspaper  wished  the  public  to  believe  that  the 
Crown  Prince  had  said.  It  may  well  be  that  Bis- 
marck, who  was  in  the  habit  of  providing  for  every 
contingency,  was  alarmed  by  the  Crown  Prince's 
illness,  and  desired  to  consolidate  his  own  position 
in  the  event  of  the  Crown  Princess  becoming  Re- 
gent. 

After  a  long  convalescence  at  Wiesbaden  the 
Crown  Prince  returned  with  his  wife  to  Berlin  in 
the  spring  of  1873.     In  the  summer  they  went  to 


256      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Vienna  for  the  International  Exhibition,  and  while 
there  they  called,  quite  without  ceremony,  on  von 
Angeli,  the  painter.  The  Crown  Princess  invited 
him  to  come  to  Potsdam  to  paint  her  husband's  por- 
trait; he  accepted  the  commission,  and  it  was  the 
beginning  of  a  long  friendship. 

Von  Angeli  speaks  with  enthusiasm  of  the  sim- 
ple and  charming  home  life  of  the  Crown  Prince 
and  Princess,  who  often  entertained  him.  He 
notes  that,  while  there  was  much  talk  of  a  literary, 
artistic,  and  scientific  kind,  politics  and  military 
matters  were  never  referred  to.  For  the  Crown 
Princess  the  painter  had  the  highest  admiration — 
indeed,  he  says  she  was  gifted  with  every  adorn- 
ment of  mind  and  heart.  She  made  such  progress 
in  painting  that  von  Angeli  declares  himself  proud 
to  call  himself  her  instructor.  The  Crown  Prince 
took  a  keen  interest  in  his  wife's  success,  and  was 
himself  encouraged  to  begin  working,  both  in  char- 
coal and  in  colour. 

As  regarded  the  relations  between  England  and 
Germany,  the  Crown  Princess  had  an  increasingly 
difficult  part  to  play  during  the  years  that  imme- 
diately succeeded  the  war.  France  and  Germany 
— the  former  with  far  more  reason — ^both  con- 
sidered that  they  had  been  badly  treated  by  Great 
Britain  during  the  conflict.  Prince  Bismarck 
either  was,  or  pretended  to  be,  watchful  and  appre- 
hensive of  the  state  of  feeling  in  France,  and 
Moltke,  following  his  lead,  spoke  at  a  State  ban- 


ACTIVITIES  257 

quet  as  if  war  might  again  be  forced  on  Germany 
by  France. 

Urged,  as  Bismarck  and  his  friends  believed,  by 
the  Crown  Princess,  but  really  by  the  advice  of 
Lord  Granville,  Queen  Victoria,  in  1874,  made  a 
personal  appeal  to  the  German  Emperor.  In  her 
letter,  after  observing  that  England's  sympathies 
would  be  with  Germany  in  any  difference  with 
France,  she  added  the  significant  qualification, 
"unless  there  was  an  appearance  on  the  part  of 
Germany  of  an  intention  to  avail  herself  of  her 
greatly  superior  force  to  crush  a  beaten  foe." 

In  reviewing  the  life  of  the  Empress  Frederick 
as  a  whole,  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  the 
Emperor  William  was  not  expected  to  reach,  as 
in  fact  he  did,  an  extraordinary  old  age.  After 
the  Franco-Prussian  War,  everyone  of  any  intelli- 
gence, from  Bismarck  downwards,  attached  great 
importance  to  the  Crown  Princess's  views  and 
feelings;  they  believed  that  she  had  established  a 
commanding  influence  over  her  husband,  and  that 
the  moment  he  succeeded  to  the  throne  she  would 
be  the  real  ruler.  Accordingly,  the  further  inter- 
vention of  Queen  Victoria  in  1875,  when  a  German 
attack  on  France  appeared  imminent,  was  the 
crowning  offence  of  the  "British  petticoats." 

Queen  Victoria,  as  is  well  known,  wrote  a  per- 
sonal letter  to  the  Tsar,  who  responded  by  going 
himself  to  Berlin.  The  "British  petticoats,"  it  is 
true,  had  resented  what  appeared  to  be  the  act  of 


258      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

aggression  of  France  before  the  falsification  of  the 
Ems  despatch  had  been  revealed,  but  they  were 
angered  by  Bismarck's  conspiracy  with  Russia  in 
denouncing  the  Black  Sea  Treaty;  and  his  opposi- 
tion to  a  law  of  Ministerial  responsibility,  which 
might  have  given  the  new  Empire  a  constitutional 
basis,  showed  the  impossibility  of  any  real  political 
sympathy  between  the  Minister  and  the  Princess 
who  had  been  trained  in  the  school  of  Prince  Al- 
bert. 

The  consequence  of  Queen  Victoria's  successful 
intervention  was  indeed  far-reaching.  The  ten 
years  which  followed  were  probably  the  most 
anxious  of  Bismarck's  whole  life.  France,  by  the 
prompt  payment  of  the  Indemnity  and  in  other 
ways,  had  shown  a  most  disquieting  power  of  re- 
vival after  the  war.  In  addition,  the  understand- 
ing with  Russia,  which  was  the  pivot  of  Bismarck's 
foreign  policy,  having  been  broken  in  his  hands, 
he  was  obliged  to  recast  his  policy  from  the  founda- 
tions; and,  though  he  succeeded  in  his  immediate 
aims  of  separating  England  and  France  on  the 
one  hand,  and  France  and  Russia  on  the  other,  his 
resentment  against  the  Crown  Princess  and  her 
mother  as  the  origin  of  all  his  troubles  burned  all 
the  more  fiercely. 

After  each  quarrel — for  quarrels  there  were — 
between  the  all-powerful  Minister  and  his  future 
sovereign,  a  peace,  or  rather  a  truce,  was  generally 
patched  up,  and  Bismarck  would  be  invited  to  some 


FREDERICK  WILLIAM 
CROWN   PRINCE  OF   PRUSSIA 
AFTER  THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN   WAR 


ACTIVITIES  259 

kind  of  festivity  at  the  Crown  Prince's  palace.  A 
shrewd  observer  has  recorded  that  on  such  occa- 
sions his  manner  to  the  Crown  Princess  was  always 
courteous,  but  to  the  Crown  Prince  he  was  often 
curt  to  the  verge  of  insolence. 

So  intense  was  the  feeling  aroused  among  Bis- 
marck and  his  followers,  that  the  Crown  Prince 
and  Princess  found  life  in  Berlin  almost  intoler- 
able, and  they  began  spending  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  each  year  abroad. 

The  many  philanthropic,  social,  and  political 
interests  of  the  Crown  Princess  were  never  allowed 
to  interfere  with  her  family  life  and  duties.  Very 
soon  after  the  war,  both  she  and  the  Crown  Prince 
began  to  give  much  anxious  thought  to  the  edu- 
cation and  training  of  their  eldest  son.  We  have 
a  significant  glimpse  of  how  the  question  moved 
the  conscientious  father  in  a  passage  in  the  Crown 
Prince's  diary  written  on  January  27,  1871,  while 
he  was  still  in  the  field : 

"To-day  is  my  son  William's  thirteenth  birth- 
day. It  is  enough  to  frighten  one  to  think  what 
hopes  already  fill  the  head  of  this  boy,  and  how 
we  are  responsible  for  the  direction  which  we  may 
give  to  his  education;  this  education  encounters 
so  many  difficulties  owing  to  family  considerations 
and  the  circumstances  of  the  Berlin  Court." 

The  Crown  Princess  was  the  victim  of  much 
malevolent  and  ignorant  criticism  when  it  was 
realised  that  the  old  traditions  were  to  be  broken 


260      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

in  some  important  particulars.  The  civil  element 
was  to  be  at  least  of  equal  importance  as  the  mili- 
tary in  the  training  of  Prince  William,  and  he  and 
Prince  Henry  were  sent  to  the  ordinary  "gym- 
nasium," or  public  school  as  we  should  call  it,  at 
Cassel,  a  little  town  in  the  old  Duchy  of  Hesse, 
which  the  parents  deliberately  chose  because  it  was 
some  distance  from  Berlin.  The  sanction  of  the 
Emperor  William  had  to  be  obtained  for  this  plan, 
and  though  he  gave  it  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
he  really  disapproved. 

This  "magnanimous  resolve,  heretofore  un- 
exampled in  the  annals  of  our  reigning  families," 
was  indeed  regarded  with  mixed  feelings  by  the 
country  generally.  It  was  not,  as  was  supposed 
by  many,  an  English  idea  to  send  their  heir  to  the 
throne  to  an  ordinary  school.  The  Prince  of 
Wales  had  not  been  educated  at  all  on  those  lines, 
and  there  was  certainly  no  precedent  in  the  Royal 
House  of  Prussia.  The  plan  was  not  without 
risks,  but  on  the  whole  it  succeeded  admirably.  By 
the  special  wish  of  the  parents,  the  two  princes 
were  treated  just  like  other  boys;  they  were  ad- 
dressed as  "you,"  and  were  called  "Prince  Wil- 
liam" and  "Prince  Henry."  "No  one,"  said  an 
English  newspaper  correspondent,  "seeing  these 
two  simple,  kindly-looking  lads  in  their  plain  miU- 
tary  frocks,  sitting  on  a  form  at  the  Cassel  Gym- 
nasium among  the  other  pupils,  would  have  guessed 
that  they  were  the  two  young  Imperial  Princes." 


ACTIVITIES  261 

The  Princes  had  one  privilege  accorded  them; 
they  lived  with  their  tutor,  Dr.  Hinzpeter,  but  this 
circumstance  certainly  did  nothing  to  reconcile 
Bismarck  to  the  plan. 

Bismarck  gives  a  significant  account  of  his  meet- 
ing with  Hinzpeter  at  a  time  when  public  opinion 
was  busy  with  the  Polish  question,  and  the  Alven- 
sleben  Convention  aroused  the  indignation  of  the 
Liberals  in  the  Diet.  Hinzpeter  was  introduced 
to  Bismarck  at  a  gathering  at  the  Crown  Prince's. 
"As  he  was  in  daily  communication  with  the  Royal- 
ties, and  gave  himself  out  to  be  a  man  of  Conser- 
vative opinions,  I  ventured  upon  a  conversation 
with  him,  in  which  I  set  forth  my  views  of  the 
Polish  question,  in  the  expectation  that  he  would 
now  and  again  find  opportunity  of  giving  ex- 
pression to  it."  Some  days  later  Hinzpeter  wrote 
to  Bismarck  that  the  Crown  Princess  had  asked  to 
know  the  subject  of  their  long  conversation.  He 
had  recounted  it  all  to  her,  and  had  then  reduced  it 
to  writing,  and  he  sent  Bismarck  the  memorandum 
with  the  request  that  he  would  examine  it,  and  make 
any  needful  corrections.  This  was  really  courting 
a  snub,  which  Bismarck  hastened  to  administer, 
flatly  refusing  Hinzpeter's  request. 

The  Princess's  English  ideas  prevailed  in  the 
physical  education  of  her  children,  and  in  her  care 
to  occupy  them  with  such  innocent  pursuits  as 
gardening.  But  the  mother's  desire  that  her  eldest 
son  should  not  be  too  much  under  the  glamour  of 


262      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

military  glory  was  defeated,  partly  by  the  boy's 
own  firmness  of  character,  partly  by  the  events  of 
history.  The  three  great  wars  which  culminated 
in  the  foundation  of  the  German  Empire — the 
Danish,  the  Austrian,  and  the  French — covered 
the  period  of  his  boyhood,  and  his  earliest  recol- 
lections of  his  father  were  of  a  great  soldier  going 
forth  to  win  the  laurels  of  victory  over  the  succes- 
sive enemies  of  his  country.  The  young  prince  in 
fact  spent  most  of  his  impressionable  years  in  the 
full  influence  of  that  hero-worship  for  Frederick 
the  Great  which  formed  the  strongest  link  between 
the  father  and  the  son,  though  it  is  plain  that  each 
admired  his  great  forebear  for  different  reasons. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  CROWN  prince's  REGENCY 

In  the  January  of  1874  the  Crown  Princess  went 
to  Russia  to  he  present  at  the  marriage  of  her 
brother,  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  with  the  Grand 
Duchess  Marie  Alexandrovna.  Unhke  most  Royal 
personages,  many  of  whom  regard  such  functions 
as  weddings  as  duties  to  be  endured,  the  Crown 
Princess  thoroughly  enjoyed  the  experience.  The 
Emperor  Alexander  was  charmed  with  her  clever- 
ness and  enthusiasm,  and  gave  her  a  ruby  bracelet, 
which  she  was  fond  of  wearing  to  the  end  of  her 
life. 

The  Princess  had  the  pleasure  of  entertaining 
the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  on  their  way 
home  from  St.  Petersburg.  It  was  the  first  time 
the  Princess  of  Wales  had  appeared  at  the  Prus- 
sian Court  since  the  War  of  the  Duchies,  and  her 
wonderful  beauty  and  charm  of  manner  greatly 
impressed  all  those  who  were  brought  in  contact 
with  her. 

The  Crown  Princess  gave  a  splendid  fancy 
dress  ball  at  the  New  Palace  in  February,  1874. 
To  some  who  were  present  it  recalled  the  costume 
ball  given  by  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince  Albert 
at  Buckingham  Palace  nearly  thirty  years  before. 
The  Crown  Princess,  who  was  devoted  to  Italy 

263 


264      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

and  to  Italian  art,  decided  that  the  entertainment 
should  be  known  as  the  Venetian  Fete.  She  her- 
self wore  a  replica  of  the  dress  in  which  Leonora 
Conzaga  was  painted  by  Titian.  Later  there  was 
painted  by  von  Angeli  a  portrait  of  the  Crown 
Princess  in  this  dress. 

The  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  spent  the  spring 
of  1875  in  Italy,  including  a  long  stay  in  Venice. 
There  they  entertained  the  painter  Anton  von 
Werner,  who  has  left  an  enthusiastic  account  of 
their  visit. 

He  records  that  the  Princess  drew  and  painted 
with  real  industry,  now  sketching  the  unequalled 
treasures  of  the  past,  now  studying  the  effects  of 
light  or  shade  on  the  canals  or  in  the  square  of  St. 
Mark's.  The  painter  was  astonished,  not  only  at 
the  Princess's  powers  of  technique,  but  also  at  her 
artistic  sympathy  and  feeling.  She  seemed  to 
know  intuitively  what  would  make  a  fine  sketch. 
On  the  evening  of  her  departure,  he  says,  this  artist 
Princess  carried  away  with  her  an  unforgettable 
picture.  The  Grand  Canal  was  covered  with  a 
fleet  of  gondolas,  each  hghted  with  torches,  while 
the  full  moon  shed  her  radiance  over  the  noble 
palaces  and  the  Rialto  Bridge. 

Von  Werner  adds  that  the  Princess,  in  spite  of 
the  many  claims  on  her  time,  had  since  that  time 
persevered  in  all  her  artistic  studies,  and  he  par- 
ticularly mentions  von  Angeli,  Wilberg,  Lutteroth 
and  Albert  Hertel,  as  painters  who  helped  and  in- 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE'S  REGENCY    265 

spired  her.  She  did  life-sized  portraits  of  her  chil- 
dren, Prince  William  and  the  Hereditary  Princess 
of  Saxe-Meiningen,  in  addition  to  numerous  pencil 
and  water-colour  sketches  of  really  remarkable 
artistic  merit. 

In  the  October  of  that  year  the  Crown  Prince, 
in  a  long  letter  to  his  old  friend.  Prince  Charles 
of  Roumania,  mentions  that  the  Princess  is  more 
industrious  and  successful  than  ever  in  painting 
and  drawing,  and  does  marvels  in  the  way  of  por- 
traits. He  also  describes  how  his  wife  led  her  Hus- 
sar regiment  past  the  King.  She  did  it,  he  says, 
magnificently,  and  looked  extremely  well  in  her 
simple  yet  becoming  uniform. 

The  Crown  Princess  was  of  great  assistance  to 
her  husband  in  his  scheme  of  adding  a  Royal 
Mausoleum  to  the  BerHn  Cathedral,  which  should 
be  a  kind  of  Pantheon  of  the  House  of  Hohen- 
zollern.  There  were  to  be  statues  of  all  the  Elec- 
toral Princes  and  Kings,  with  mscriptions  relating 
the  history  and  exploits  of  each.  This  involved  a 
great  deal  of  historical  research,  of  which  the 
Princess  took  her  share,  as  also  in  the  composition 
of  the  more  detailed  historical  memoirs  or  character 
sketches  of  his  ancestors  to  which  the  Crown  Prince 
also  devoted  himself. 

A  visit  to  Scheveningen  in  1876  enabled  the 
Crown  Princess  to  study,  much  to  her  delight,  the 
historical  and  artistic  treasures  of  the  old  cities  of 
Holland. 


266      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Crown  Princess, 
many  years  before,  had  had  scruples  about  !her 
husband's  association  with  Freemasonry.  She  was 
perhaps  reassured  by  a  speech  which  he  delivered 
in  July,  1876,  when  Prince  Frederick  of  the  Neth- 
erlands celebrated  his  sixtieth  anniversary  as 
Grand  Master.  Freemasonry,  he  declared,  aimed 
at  love,  freedom,  and  tolerance,  without  regard 
to  national  divisions,  and  he  hoped  it  might  be 
victorious  in  the  struggle  for  intellect  and  liberty. 
This  speech  is  particularly  interesting  because, 
only  two  years  before,  the  Crown  Prince  had  re- 
signed his  office  in  Grand  Lodge  in  Berlin  owing  to 
the  opposition  he  encountered  in  striving  to  carry 
out  certain  reforms  in  the  craft. 

1877  was  an  eventful  year  in  the  Prussian  Im- 
perial family.  In  February,  Prince  William  re- 
ceived his  commission  in  the  Foot  Guards;  Prin- 
cess Charlotte  was  betrothed  to  the  Heredi- 
tary Prince  Bernhard  of  Saxe-Meiningen ;  and 
Prince  Henry  made  his  formal  entry  into  the 
Navy. 

In  April  of  this  year  it  became  known  that  Bis- 
marck had  made  one  of  his  not  infrequent  threats 
to  resign,  and  Bucher  wrote  to  Busch  to  tell  him 
the  news:  "It  is  not  a  question  of  leave  of  absence," 
he  said,  "but  a  peremptory  demand  to  be  allowed 
to  retire.  The  reason:  Augusta,  who  influences 
her  aging  consort,  and  conspires  with  Victoria 
(the  Crown  Princess)." 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE'S  REGENCY    267 

The  year  1878  opened  brightly  for  the  Crown 
Princess,  for  in  February  her  eldest  daughter. 
Princess  Charlotte,  was  married  to  Prince  Bern- 
hard  of  Saxe-Meiningen.  Prince  Bismarck,  how- 
ever, excused  himself  from  appearing  at  the  cere- 
mony on  the  pretext  of  ill-health. 

It  was  at  this  marriage,  the  first  of  the  Crown 
Princess's  family  weddings,  that  her  brother,  the 
Duke  of  Connaught,  made  the  acquaintance  of  his 
future  wife. 

In  the  month  of  May  came  the  attempted  assas- 
sination of  the  Emperor  by  a  youth  called  Hodel. 
The  Emperor  then  had  a  marvellous  escape,  but 
on  June  2,  which  happened  to  be  a  Sunday,  the 
aged  Sovereign  was  driving  down  Unter  den 
Linden  when,  from  an  upper  window  of  an  inn 
called  "The  Three  Ravens,"  Nobeling,  a  Socialist, 
fired  two  charges  of  buckshot  into  the  Emperor's 
head  and  shoulders.  Violent  haemorrhage  set  in, 
and  for  some  hours  it  was  said,  first,  that  he  was 
dead,  and  secondly,  that  if  not  dead  he  could  not 
survive  the  day. 

The  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  were  then  in 
England,  and  the  news  reached  them  at  Hatfield, 
where  they  were  staying  with  Lord  and  Lady 
Salisbury.  Within  a  very  short  time  of  the  re- 
ceipt of  the  telegram,  they  started  for  Berlin,  find- 
ing on  their  arrival  that  the  Emperor  had  recov- 
ered sufiiciently  to  sign  an  order  conferring  the 
Regency  on  the  Crown  Prince. 


268      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

The  Regency  was  hardly  more  than  titular,  for 
the  old  Emperor  stipulated  that  his  son  was  only 
to  "represent"  him,  and  that  the  government  was 
to  be  carried  on  as  before  in  accordance  with  the 
Emperor's  known  views.  As  to  that,  Bismarck 
had  his  own  ideas,  and  he  succeeded  in  overcoming 
the  Crown  Prince's  natural  hesitation  at  accepting 
such  a  position. 

Nevertheless,  it  was  an  extraordinarily  sudden 
and  dramatic  change  in  the  whole  position  of  the 
Crown  Prince  and  Princess.  In  the  first  place  it 
absolutely  put  an  end  to  the  plan,  which  had  been 
seriously  discussed  and  on  the  whole  approved  by 
Bismarck,  that  the  Crown  Prince  should  become 
Governor-General  or  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Al- 
sace-Lorraine. Obviously  this  scheme  was  no 
longer  practical.  The  Emperor  was  old  and  his 
wound  was  serious ;  the  accession  of  his  son  seemed 
imminent. 

It  is  curious  to  recall  that,  so  far  back  as  Janu- 
ary^ 1862,  Queen  Augusta,  speaking  to  Prince 
Hohenlohe,  had  observed:  "The  King  and  I  are 
old  people:  we  can  hardly  hope  to  do  more  than 
work  for  the  future.  But  I  wish  we  could  look 
forward  to  a  happier  state  of  things  for  our  son." 
She  was  destined  to  live  thirty  years  longer,  and  to 
survive  the  son  to  whom  she  ever  proved  herself 
a  loyal  and  devoted  mother,  while  her  husband, 
whom  even  then  she  described  as  old,  was  destined 
to  live  more  than  another  quarter  of  a  century — 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE'S  REGENCY    269 

almost  as  long,  in  fact,  as  the  son  who  succeeded 
him  for  so  tragically  brief  a  reign. 

But  now,  in  1878,  it  seemed  as  if  the  Crown 
Prince,  even  in  the  unlikely  event  of  his  father's 
recovery  from  his  wound,  must  become  virtual 
ruler  of  the  German  Empire. 

A  very  few  days,  however,  made  it  clear  that 
Bismarck  was  determined  to  allow  the  new  Regent 
as  little  authority  as  possible  beyond  that  conferred 
by  the  signing  of  State  documents,  and  that  he 
was  to  have  no  practical  influence  on  foreign  poli- 
tics. But  fortune,  then  as  always,  seemed  to  single 
out  Bismarck  for  special  favour,  for  in  the  all- 
important  matter  of  Russo-German  relations  the 
Crown  Prince  was  far  easier  to  manage,  in  so  far 
as  any  management  of  him  was  necessary,  than  the 
old  Emperor,  who  was  fondly  attached  to  his 
nephew,  the  Tsar  Alexander  II. 

Those  months,  during  which  the  Crown  Prince 
exercised  in  theory  a  power  which  he  certainly  did 
not  possess  in  reality,  were  among  the  most  trying 
of  all  the  trying  months  the  Crown  Princess  ever 
passed  through,  the  more  so  that  the  Berlin  Con- 
gress, which  she  and  the  Prince  had  gone  to  Eng- 
land to  avoid,  opened  on  June  13.  Among  those 
who  sojourned  in  Berlin  during  those  eventful 
daj';s,  and  whose  presence  must  have  been  a  pleas- 
ure to  the  Princess,  were  Lord  and  Lady  Salisbury. 

But  during  the  Congress  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  kept  rigidly  apart  from  even  its  social 


270      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

functions,  the  only  exception  being  that  the  Crown 
Prince  gave  an  official  dinner  in  the  King's  name 
to  the  plenipotentiaries.  The  Crown  Princess 
stayed  out  at  Potsdam,  while  the  Empress  refused 
to  appear  in  any  official  way;  she  treated  her  son 
entirely  as  if  he  were  already  Emperor. 

Most  serious  was  the  sharp  division  caused  be- 
tween the  father  and  son  by  the  decisions  of  the 
Congress.  The  Crown  Prince,  who  had  a  life 
long  dislike  and  suspicion  of  Russia  and  of  Rus- 
sian state-craft,  was  supposed  to  have  favoured 
England,  and  the  old  Emperor,  to  the  very  end  of 
his  life,  considered  that  Germany  had  not  done 
as  well  at  the  Congress  as  she  should  have  done. 
He  ascribed  the  fact — probably  most  unfairly — 
to  the  Crown  Prince  instead  of  to  Bismarck. 

Meanwhile,  all  kinds  of  gossip  were  rife  as  to 
the  Crown  Princess's  efforts  to  influence  her  hus- 
band, for  by  the  public  at  large  the  Regent  was 
regarded  as  all-powerful. 

To  give  an  example  of  how  the  Princess  was 
misunderstood  and  misjudged;  when  Hodel  at- 
tacked the  Emperor,  the  latter  declared  that  he 
did  not  wish  the  full  severity  of  the  law  to  be  ex- 
ercised. But  when  Nobeling's  far  more  serious 
attempt  at  assassination  followed,  public  opinion 
demanded  that  Hodel  should  be  condemned  to 
death.  The  Crown  Prince,  as  Regent,  had  to  sign 
the  death  warrant,  and  it  became  known  that  he 
had  told  a  personal  friend  how  very  painful  it  was 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE'S  REGENCY    271 

to  him  to  sign  it.  It  was  widely  beKeved  that  this 
over-scrupulousness,  for  so  the  good  Berliners 
considered  it,  was  due  to  the  influence  of  the  Crown 
Princess ;  yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  she  had  been,  from 
the  first,  of  opinion  that  Hodel,  who  had  certainly 
meant  to  kill  his  Sovereign,  should  be  executed. 

In  spite,  however,  of  Bismarck's  determination 
to  make  him  a  cypher,  the  Crown  Prince  did  not 
allow  himself  to  be  put  wholly  in  the  background. 
To  the  Minister's  great  annoyance,  he  opened  a  per- 
sonal correspondence  with  the  new  Pope,  Leo 
XIII,  in  the  hope  of  putting  an  end  to  the  Kultur- 
kampf.  Though  at  the  time  it  did  not  seem  as 
though  the  Prince  had  succeeded,  it  laid  the  founda- 
tions for  the  ultimate  solution  of  the  problem. 

The  Regent  also  appointed  a  certain  Dr.  Fried- 
berg,  a  distinguished  Jewish  jurist,  who  belonged 
to  the  Liberal  party,  to  a  very  high  judicial  post. 
Curiously  enough,  this  was  the  only  appointment 
the  Crown  Prince  made  which  was  not  afterwards 
revoked.  The  Emperor  William  I  retained  Fried- 
berg,  but  refused  to  bestow  on  him  the  Black  Eagle 
even  after  he  had  served  for  nine  years  in  olHice. 
Ten  years  later,  when  the  Emperor  Frederick  was 
on  his  way  home  from  San  Remo  after  his  father's 
death,  he  received  a  Ministerial  delegation  at  Leip- 
zig, and,  on  seeing  Friedberg,  he  took  the  Black 
Eagle  from  his  own  neck  and  placed  it  about  that 
of  his  old  friend. 

By  the  end  of  the  year,  the  Emperor  was  quite 


272      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

himself  again.  On  a  certain  memorable  evening 
in  December,  he  appeared  at  the  Opera  and  was 
the  object  of  an  extraordinary  popular  demonstra- 
tion. The  next  day  he  wrote  an  open  letter  to  the 
Crown  Prince,  thanking  him  in  the  warmest  terms 
for  the  way  in  which  he  had  fulfilled  his  duties  as 
Regent. 

It  was  rumoured  at  the  time — it  is  difficult  to 
know  with  what  truth — that  the  Crown  Princess 
would  have  liked,  after  the  recovery  of  her  father- 
in-law,  that  a  special  post  should  be  created  for  her 
husband.  But,  on  his  side,  the  Crown  Prince  said 
to  an  English  friend  that  he  had  no  wish  to  find 
himself  the  fifth  wheel  of  the  coach,  and  that  he 
hated  having  only  a  semblance  of  authority. 

During  that  visit  to  England  which  was  so  sud- 
denly interrupted  by  Nobehng's  attempt  on  the 
Emperor,  Mr.  Goschen,  the  statesman  whom 
Lord  Randolph  Churchill  afterwards  "forgot"  at 
the  time  of  his  dramatic  resignation,  was  asked  to 
arrange  a  meeting  between  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  and  George  Eliot.  The  novelist  thus  de- 
scribes the  party  in  a  letter  to  a  friend: 

"The  Royalties  did  themselves  much  credit. 
The  Crown  Prince  is  really  a  grand-looking  man, 
whose  name  you  would  ask  for  with  expectation 
if  you  imagined  him  no  royalty.  He  is  like  a 
grand  antique  bust — cordial  and  simple  in  manners 
withal,  shaking  hands,  and  insisting  that  I  should 
let  him  know  when  next  we  came  to  Berlin,  just 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE'S  REGENCY    273 

as  if  he  had  been  a  Professor  Gruppe,  living  au 
troisieme.  She  is  equally  good-natured  and  un- 
pretending, liking  best  to  talk  of  nursing  soldiers, 
and  of  what  her  father's  estate  was  in  literature. 
We  had  a  picked  party  to  dinner — ^the  Dean  of 
Westminster,  the  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  Lord 
and  Lady  Ripon,  Dr.  Lyon  Playfair,  Kinglake, 
Froude,  Mrs.  Ponsonby  (Lord  Grey's  grand- 
daughter), and  two  or  three  more  'illustrations'; 
then  a  small  detachment  coming  in  after  dinner. 
It  was  really  an  interesting  occasion." 

This  was  the  kind  of  party  which  the  Crown 
Princess  thoroughly  enjoyed,  though  even  then  her 
shyness  always  struck  those  who  met  her  for  the 
first  time.  On  this  occasion  she  opened  her  con- 
versation with  George  Eliot  by  saying,  "You  know 
my  sister  Louise?" — and  George  Eliot's  comment 
is  "just  as  any  other  slightly  embarrassed  mortal 
might  have  done." 

On  December  14,  the  anniversary  of  the  Prince 
Consort's  death,  the  Crown  Princess  suffered 
another,  and  a  hardly  less  terrible  bereavement. 

Her  beloved  sister.  Princess  Alice,  Grand 
Duchess  of  Hesse,  after  losing  one  child  from  diph- 
theria and  devotedly  nursing  her  husband  and  her 
other  children,  herself  fell  a  victim  to  the  malady, 
the  treatment  of  which  was  not  then  so  well 
understood  as  it  is  now.  The  sisters  had  been 
fondly  attached  to  one  another  from  childhood, 
and  after  Princess  Ahce's  marriage  the  tie  was 


274      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

drawn  even  closer.  They  had  been  inseparable 
during  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  and  for  many 
years  the  happiest  days  spent  each  year  by  the 
Crown  Princess  were  those  when  she  was  able  to 
pay  a  flying  visit  to  the  Grand  Duchess,  or  when 
the  Grand  Duchess  was  able  to  spend  a  few  days 
at  Berlin  or  Potsdam. 

But  there  was  yet  another  and  an  even  more 
bitter  sorrow  in  store  for  the  Crown  Princess.  In 
March,  1879,  her  third  son,  Prince  Waldemar, 
died  in  his  eleventh  year.  He  was  a  clever,  affec- 
tionate, merry-hearted  boy,  and  would  have  been 
his  mother's  favourite  child,  if  she  had  allowed 
herself  to  make  differences  between  her  children. 
Like  the  Princess  herself,  he  had  been  intellectu- 
ally far  in  advance  of  his  years,  and  he  had  had  as 
tutor  a  distinguished  professor,  Herr  Delbriick, 
who  succeeded  Treitschke  in  the  Chair  of  History 
at  the  Berlin  University,  and  afterwards  played  a 
considerable  part  in  German  thought  and  even  in 
German  politics. 

It  is  shocking  to  have  to  record  an  example  of 
the  prejudice  which  was  even  then  still  felt  in  cer- 
tain circles  in  Germany  against  the  bereaved 
Crown  Princess.  A  minister  of  the  sect  who  called 
themselves  the  Orthodox  Protestants,  when  he 
heard  of  the  death  of  the  young  Prince,  observed 
that  he  hoped  it  was  a  trial  sent  by  God  to  humili- 
ate her  hard  heart.  This  monstrous  utterance 
must  have  found  its  way  into  print,  or  to  the  ears 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE'S  REGENCY    275 

of  some  singularly  ill-advised  human  being,  for  the 
Princess  came  to  know  of  it,  and  in  her  then  state 
of  anguish  it  gave  her  more  pain  than  perhaps  even 
the  minister  himself  would  have  wished  to  inflict. 

It  was  natural  that  the  mother's  heart  should 
at  this  moment  turn  with  keen  anxiety  to  her  son. 
Prince  Henry,  who  was  then  serving  abroad  in  a 
German  warship.  She  imagined  him  in  the  midst 
of  all  sorts  of  perils,  and  she  begged  the  Emperor 
to  allow  him  to  return  home  at  once.  But  the 
Sovereign,  though  expressing  kindly  sympathy, 
was  obliged,  in  view  of  the  rigid  rules  of  the  serv- 
ice, to  refuse  her  petition,  and  the  Princess  had  to 
bear  as  best  she  could  this  addition  to  her  burden. 

At  this  time  the  Crown  Princess's  relations  with 
Bismarck  had  undergone  some  improvement.  On 
February  23,  1879,  Bismarck  gave  to  Busch  a 
most  unflattering  picture  of  the  old  Emperor,  but 
he  described  the  Crown  Princess  as  unafl'ected  and 
sincere,  hke  her  husband,  "which  her  mother-in- 
law  is  not."  He  observed  that  it  was  only  family 
considerations  (the  Coburger  and  the  Augusten- 
burger  more  than  the  uncle  in  Hanover)  that  made 
the  Crown  Princess  troublesome,  formerly  more  so 
than  at  present.  ^'But  she  is  honourable  and  has 
no  pretensions." 

It  was  thought  that  the  Crown  Princess  was 
sadly  in  need  of  mental  change  and  refreshment 
after  the  two  terrible  blows  which  had  deprived 
her  of  her  child  and  of  her  sister.     She,  therefore. 


276      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

went  to  stay  in  Rome  incognito  during  the  April 
of  1880,  being  only  attended  by  a  lady-in-waiting 
and  her  "chambellan."  To  those  of  her  English 
friends  whom  she  happened  to  meet  she  spoke  con- 
stantly of  her  dead  son,  saying  that  he  had  been 
the  most  promising  of  her  children,  and  that  she 
felt  as  if  she  could  never  be  resigned  to  her  loss. 
In  answer  to  a  kindly  suggestion  that  she  had  so 
many  duties  to  perform  that  she  would  soon  be 
taken  out  of  herself,  she  said:  "Ah,  yes,  there  is 
much  to  do  and  one  cannot  sit  down  with  one's 
sorrow,  but  the  mother  who  has  lost  her  child  carries 
a  heavy  heart  all  her  life." 

During  her  stay  in  Rome,  the  Princess  spent 
almost  the  whole  of  each  day  in  the  picture  gal- 
leries, and  in  the  evening  she  generally  dined  with 
some  of  her  English  friends  and  members  of  the 
diplomatic  corps.  As  was  always  her  wont,  she 
managed  to  see  all  the  more  interesting  strangers 
who  were  just  then  in  Rome,  many  being  asked  to 
meet  her  at  the  British  Embassy.  One  night, 
when  Lady  Paget  asked  her  whom  she  would  like 
to  meet,  she  answered  instantly:  "Cardinal  Howard 
and  Mr.  Story"  (the  American  sculptor).  The 
Princess,  however,  could  not  stay  as  long  in  Rome 
as  she  would  have  liked,  for  she  had  to  hurry  back 
to  be  present  at  the  Emperor's  golden  wedding 
festivities. 

Fortunately  for  the  Crown  Princess,  there  came 
other   thoughts   to   distract   her   from   her   grief. 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE'S  REGENCY    277 

She  welcomed  her  first  grandchild,  the  Hereditary- 
Princess  of  Saxe-Meiningen  giving  birth  to  a 
daughter,  and  in  April,  1880,  her  eldest  son  Prince 
William  was  betrothed  to  Princess  Victoria  of  the 
House  of  Schleswig-Holstein-Augustenburg,  an 
alliance  entirelj^  approved  by  his  parents.  The 
Crown  Prince,  in  a  letter  to  Prince  Charles  of 
Roumania,  said  that  it  was  really  a  love-match, 
and  that  the  young  Princess  possessed  remarkable 
gifts  of  heart,  mind,  and  character,  as  well  as  a 
certain  gracious  dignity.  It  was  also  felt  that  the 
marriage  would  be  a  sort  of  compensation  to  the 
Augustenburg  family  for  the  loss  of  the  Elbe 
Duchies. 

In  September,  1880,  the  Crown  Princess  had 
the  joy  of  welcoming  back  Prince  Henry  from  his 
voyage  round  the  world,  and  the  marriage  of  Prince 
William  took  place  in  February,  1881,  amid  uni- 
versal rejoicings. 

The  CroAvn  Princess's  influence  on  the  artistic 
life  of  Germany  was  shown  by  a  little  incident 
connected  with  her  eldest  son's  marriage.  On  the 
occasion  of  the  wedding  the  town  of  Berlin  deco- 
rated the  streets  in  a  particularly  original  and 
beautiful  way,  and  other  Prussian  towns  gave  the 
young  people  as  a  wedding  present  a  really  artis- 
tic table  service.  The  Crown  Prince  exclaimed: 
"And  whom  have  we  to  thank  that  such  things 
can  be  done  by  us  in  Germany  to-day?  Not  least 
my  wife!" 


278      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

In  the  following  March,  when  the  Crown  Prince 
was  in  Russia  attending  the  funeral  of  Alexander 
II,  who  had  been  assassinated  by  Nihilists,  the 
Princess  received  an  anonymous  threatening  letter, 
informing  her  that  her  husband  would  also  fall  a 
victim  to  the  Nihilists  in  the  next  few  hours.  She 
was  in  a  dreadful  state  of  agitation  until  reassur- 
ing telegrams  arrived. 

A  son  was  born  to  Prince  and  Princess  William 
on  May  6,  1882,  and  the  old  Emperor  William 
telegraphed  to  the  Crown  Prince:  "Praise  and 
thanks  to  God  I  Four  generations  of  Kings  liv- 
ing! What  a  rare  event!  May  God  shield  the 
mother  and  child!" 

In  November  of  the  same  year,  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess had  a  curious  conversation  with  Prince  Ho- 
henlohe,  who  thus  records  it: 

"It  may  be  that  Christian  consolation  does  not 
suffice  one,  but  it  is  better  to  keep  this  to  oneself 
and  think  it  over.  Plato's  dialogues  and  the  an- 
cient tragedies  she  finds  very  consolatory.  Much 
that  she  said  was  true.  But  she  is  too  incautious 
and  hasty  in  her  verdicts  upon  things  which  are, 
after  all,  worthy  of  reverence." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

SILVER  wedding:    the  crown  prince's  illness 

The  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  now  looked  for- 
ward to  celebrating  their  silver  wedding  on  Janu- 
ary 25,  1883. 

The  festivities  were  rather  dashed  by  the  sudden 
death,  only  four  days  before,  of  Prince  Charles  of 
Prussia,  the  Emperor's  brother.  The  old  Prince 
had  never  liked  his  English  niece,  and  it  was  whis- 
pered in  the  diplomatic  world  that  he  had  much  pre- 
ferred to  die  before  rather  than  after  the  celebra- 
tions in  which  she  was  to  be  so  conspicuous  a  figure ! 

Preparations  for  commemorating  the  anniver- 
sary with  due  honour  had  been  made  for  fully  a 
year  before,  and  money  was  being  collected  for 
various  presentations,  when  it  was  intimated  that 
the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  wished  the  subscrip- 
tions to  be  devoted  to  public  and  philanthropic  ob- 
jects. This  made  a  great  impression,  and  the  cen- 
tral committee  raised  the  large  sum  of  .£42,000, 
mostly  in  quite  small  contributions.  It  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Prince  and  Princess  on  February  16, 
with  the  request  that  it  should  be  used  for  chari- 
table purposes  chosen  by  their  Imperial  Highnesses. 

The  money  was  accordingly  distributed  among 
the  various  charities  with  which  the  Crown  Prince 

979 


280      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

and  Princess  were  connected,  and  some  of  which 
they  had  themselves  founded — such  as  the  work- 
men's colonies  for  reclaiming  the  unemployed  and 
finding  temporary  occupation  for  them;  institu- 
tions for  the  technical  and  practical  education  of 
working  men  in  their  leisure  hours;  the  promotion 
of  health  in  the  home;  the  Victoria  School  for  the 
training  of  nurses;  and  the  Victoria  Foundation 
for  the  training  of  young  girls  in  domestic  and  in- 
dustrial work.  The  city  of  Berlin  had  a  separate 
fund,  which  reached  the  round  sum  of  £10,000,  and 
of  this  .£5900  was  spent  on  building  a  nursing  in- 
stitute. 

The  death  of  Prince  Charles  caused  the  post- 
ponement of  the  festivities  to  the  end  of  February, 
when  they  were  held  in  what  we  should  call  "full 
State."  The  Prince  of  Wales  represented  Queen 
Victoria,  and  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  also 
sent  his  heir  apparent. 

The  principal  ceremony  was  both  impressive  and 
artistic,  and  there  we  can  trace  the  influence  of  the 
Crown  Princess.  It  consisted  in  a  representation 
of  the  Court  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  arranged  by  the 
artists  of  Berlin.  The  Crown  Prince,  in  the  uni- 
form of  the  Queen's  Cuirassiers,  and  the  Crown 
Princess  in  white  satin  and  silver  lace,  led  the  mag- 
nificent procession,  in  which  all  the  Royal  person- 
ages took  part.  After  the  Crown  Prince  and 
Princess  had  taken  their  seats  between  the  Em- 
peror and  Empress,  a  dramatic  representation  of 


SILVER  WEDDING  281 

the  Court  of  Charles  the  Bold,  of  Burgundy,  with 
its  picturesque  troubadours,  was  given,  followed 
by  the  Elizabethan  Pageant.  Then  came  what 
was  perhaps  the  most  interesting  scene  of  all — a 
large  assemblage  dressed  to  represent  the  great 
painters  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  Germany,  and 
the  Netherlands,  who  advanced,  one  by  one,  and  did 
obeisance  to  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  as  pa- 
trons of  the  arts. 

In  May,  1883,  the  Princess  paid  a  private  visit 
to  Paris.  She  only  stayed  three  days,  but  during 
those  three  days  undertook  more  intelligent  sight- 
seeing than  most  women  of  her  then  age  would 
have  found  possible.  She  was  entertained  at 
luncheon  by  Lord  Lyons,  and  at  dinner  at  Saint 
Germain  by  Prince  Hohenlohe,  who  in  his  diary 
rather  ungraciously  observes:  "Royal  excursions 
with  Royal  personages  are  not  exactly  among  the 
pleasant  things  of  life." 

During  this  visit  the  Princess  said  to  a  French 
friend  that  one  of  the  lives  she  would  have  liked 
to  lead  would  have  been  that  of  a  little  bourgeoise 
of  the  Rue  Saint  Denis,  going  on  high-days  and 
holidays  to  the  Theatre  Fran^ais. 

The  Crown  Princess  was  now  able  to  carry  out 
her  cherished  project  of  building  an  English  church 
dedicated  to  St.  George  in  Berlin,  largely  with  the 
.£5700  which  was  contributed  in  England  for  the 
silver  wedding  celebrations.  The  wisdom  of  this 
emplojTuent  of  the  money  subscribed  may  perhaps 


282      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

be  doubted,  for  it  can  only  have  confirmed  the  idea 
prevailing  in  some  quarters  that  the  Princess  re- 
mained, and  would  always  remain,  an  English- 
woman in  all  her  feelings  and  sympathies.  How- 
ever, the  laying  of  the  foundation-stone,  which  the 
Crown  Princess  performed  herself  in  the  spring 
of  1884,  was  carried  out  with  considerable  cere- 
mony. 

The  Crown  Prince  made  a  speech  on  the  occa- 
sion, in  which  he  recalled  that  King  Frederick 
William  IV  had  assigned  one  of  the  rooms  in  the 
palace  of  Monbijou  to  the  use  of  the  English  con- 
gregation, and  that  the  King's  brother,  the  then 
Emperor,  actuated  by  the  same  feelings,  had 
granted  the  land  on  which  the  church  was  to  be 
built.  The  Crown  Princess  took  the  keenest  in- 
terest in  the  building,  and  followed  the  carrying 
out  of  the  architect's  plans  in  every  detail. 

After  the  death  of  Field-Marshal  Baron  von 
Manteuffel,  Stadhalter  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  it  was 
suggested  that  the  Crown  Prince  might  be  his 
successor,  but  the  old  Emperor  refused  to  consider 
the  notion,  while  being  willing  to  consider  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  young  Prince  William.  It  is  said 
that  the  Crown  Princess  herself  went  to  her  father- 
in-law  and  begged  him  not  to  put  so  great  an  af- 
front on  her  husband.  The  post  was,  therefore, 
conferred  on  Prince  Hohenlohe. 

In  the  November  of  1885,  Matthew  Arnold  paid 
a  visit  to  Germany  in  order  to  obtain  information 


SILVER  WEDDING  283 

as  to  the  German  system  of  education.  The  Crown 
Princess  was  keenly  interested  in  the  inquiries  he 
was  making.  With  her  usual  energy^  she  went  to 
considerable  personal  trouble  in  order  to  help  him, 
and  she  arranged,  among  other  things,  that  Mr. 
Arnold  should  make  a  short  stay  on  Count  Redem's 
property,  in  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg. 

In  one  of  his  letters  Arnold  gives  a  charming 
account  of  a  soiree  at  the  New  Palace:  "The 
Crown  Princess  came  round  the  circle,  and  I  kissed 
her  hand,  as  everyone  here  does  when  she  holds  it 
out.  She  talked  to  me  a  long  time,  and  said  I 
must  come  and  see  her  quietly,  comfortably."  A 
few  days  later  he  dined  at  the  palace,  the  only 
other  guest  being  Hoffmann,  the  great  chemist. 
Arnold  sat  next  the  Crown  Princess,  who  "talked 
I  may  say  all  dinner.  She  is  very  able  and  well- 
informed." 

A  day  or  two  later  came  a  message  asking  him 
to  tea  with  the  Crown  Princess:  "She  was  full  of 
the  Eastern  question,  as  all  of  them  here  are;  it 
is  of  so  much  importance  to  them.  She  talked, 
too,  about  Bismarck,  Lord  Ampthill,  the  Em- 
peror, the  Empress,  the  Queen,  the  Church,  Eng- 
lish politics,  the  German  nation,  everji:hing  and 
everybody  indeed,  except  the  Crown  Prince  and 
herself." 

Mr.  Arnold  was  very  anxious  to  meet  "the  great 
Reichs-Kanzler"  himself,  but  this  was  not  easy, 
as  the  great  man  was  reputed  to  be  almost  inac- 


284      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

cessible :  but  the  Crown  Princess  herself  wrote  and 
asked  Bismarck  to  receive  her  compatriot. 

Matthew  Arnold  was  struck  by  the  lack  in  Ber- 
lin of  what  certainly  exists  in  London  and  Paris, 
namely,  an  agreeable,  cultivated  society  consisting 
mainly  of  upper  middle-class  elements.  He  ob- 
served that  in  Berlin  there  was,  in  addition  to  the 
Court,  only  groups  of  functionaries,  of  soldiers, 
and  of  professors. 

As  may  be  gathered  from  much  that  has  al- 
ready appeared  in  this  volume,  the  Crown  Princess 
was  ever  pathetically  anxious  that  England  and 
Germany  should  be  on  the  most  friendly  terms  of 
confidence  and  affection.  Consequently  she  went 
through  some  days  of  considerable  anxiety,  in  the 
spring  and  early  summer  of  1884,  over  the  "inci- 
den"  of  Angra  Pequena.  When  Lord  Granville 
decided  to  recognise  German  sovereignty  in  this 
territory,  the  Crown  Princess  was  quite  as  pleased 
in  her  way  as  Bismarck  was.  Lord  Ampthill,  in 
a  letter  to  Lord  Granville,  observes :  "The  Crown 
Princess,  who  dined  with  us  last  night,  was  beyond 
.measure  happy  at  the  general  contentment  and  al- 
tered tone  of  the  Press." 

This  Lord  Ampthill,  the  Lord  Odo  Russell  of 
former  days,  was  a  valued  friend  of  the  Crown 
Princess.  She  was  always,  naturally,  on  terms  of 
friendship  with  her  mother's  representative  in  Ber- 
lin, but  Lord  Ampthill's  appointment  had  given 
her  special  satisfaction.     The  Ambassador's  pre- 


SILVER  WEDDING  285 

mature  death  in  1884  was  a  great  grief  to  the  Prin- 
cess, and  the  day  after  his  death  the  Crown  Prince 
himself  came  to  the  villa,  where  Lord  and  Lady 
Ampthill  had  lived  near  Sans  Souci,  to  lay  a  wreath 
on  the  coffin. 

The  health  of  the  old  Emperor  now  began  to 
give  occasion  for  anxiety.  He  had  been  born  on 
March  22,  1797,  and  when  he  reached  his  eighty- 
seventh  birthday  in  1884,  it  seemed  as  if  his  course 
was  almost  run.  In  the  circumstances  the  Crown 
Prince  and  Princess  could  scarcely  help  anticipat- 
ing the  time  when,  as  it  then  seemed,  the  great 
powers  and  responsibilities  of  the  throne  would  be 
theirs.  But  it  is  certainly  true  to  say  that  the  feel- 
ing of  duty  was  paramount  in  their  minds,  and  that 
nothing  was  further  from  their  thoughts  than  to 
covet  the  Imperial  purple  for  its  own  sake.  They 
regarded  it  as  the  symbol  of  all  that  they  were  de- 
termined to  do  for  the  welfare  and  happiness  of 
the  people. 

Even  if  they  had  been  blind  to  the  apparently 
immediate  consequences  of  the  old  Emperor's  fail- 
ing health,  they  would  have  been  enlightened  by 
the  altered  demeanour  of  Prince  Bismarck.  He 
showed  clear  signs  of  a  desire  to  cultivate  better 
relations  with  the  Heir  Apparent  and  his  family, 
and  he  even  attended  an  evening  party  given  by 
the  Crown  Princess  on  the  occasion  of  her  birth- 
day. 

Not  long  afterwards,  early  in  1885,  the  Crown 


286      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Prince  sounded  Bismarck  as  to  whether,  in  the 
event  of  the  Emperor's  death,  he  would  remain  in 
office.  The  astute  Chancellor  said  that  he  would, 
subject  to  two  conditions,  namely,  that  there  should 
be  no  foreign  influences  in  State  pohcy,  and  that 
there  should  be  no  Parliamentary  government;  it 
is  said  that  the  Crown  Prince  assented  with  an  elo- 
quent gesture. 

The  real  tragedy  of  the  Crown  Princess's  life 
surely  lies  in  these  years  of  waiting.  She  could 
not — assuredly  she  did  not — for  a  moment  wish 
that  the  old  Emperor  should  die.  She  had  nursed 
him  devotedly  during  the  long  illness  caused  by 
Nobeling's  attempted  assassination,  and  it  is  a  sig- 
nificant fact  that  she  alone  had  been  able  to  per- 
suade the  stern  old  soldier  to  leave  his  hard  camp 
bed  for  a  soft  invalid  couch.  She  knew  as  well  as 
anyone  the  Emperor's  noble  quahties,  and  she  cher- 
ished for  him  a  warm  and  filial  affection. 

Yet  it  was  patent,  especially  to  all  those  who 
shared  the  strong  pohtical  and  constitutional 
opinions  of  the  Crown  Princess,  that  the  aged 
Sovereign  had  outlived  his  usefulness  to  his  coun- 
try. She  could  not  help  being  conscious  that  in 
her  husband,  and  in  herself,  too,  there  lay,  capaci- 
ties of  national  service  of  which  Wilham  I  and  his 
consort  had  never  dreamed. 

If  the  word  "disappointment"  is  used  of  the 
Crown  Princess's  long-deferred  hopes,  it  was  in  no 
sense  the  baulking  of  any  commonplace  ambition. 


SILVER  WEDDING  287 

The  tragedy  lay  in  the  failure  of  the  pure  and 
single-hearted  dedication  of  her  husband  and  her- 
self to  bettering  the  lot  of  those  vast,  silent  millions 
on  whose  pains  and  toil  the  pomp  of  thrones  and 
empires,  the  exquisite  refinements  of  civilisation, 
the  discoveries  of  science,  and  the  delights  of  art 
and  literature,  seemed  to  her  to  be  all  ultimately 
based. 

The  sympathies  of  one  of  the  most  warm- 
hearted women  who  ever  lived  were  thus  continu- 
ally torn  and  divided,  for,  while  it  seemed  to  her 
loyal  nature  an  act  of  treachery  to  look  forward  to 
the  old  Emperor's  death,  she  was  continually  being 
reminded,  by  the  demeanour  of  those  about  her, 
that  that  event,  which  would  so  entirely  transform 
her  position,  was  expected  almost  daily. 

In  the  midst  of  this  subtle  mental  and  spiritual 
conflict,  the  Crown  Princess  was  struck  by  yet 
another  arrow  from  the  quiver  of  fate,  inflicting 
an  anguish  of  anxiety  which  even  her  bitterest  ene- 
mies would  surely  have  wished  her  to  be  spared. 

In  April,  1886,  the  Crown  Prince  sufl"ered  from 
a  severe  attack  of  measles,  which  probably  left 
him  in  a  weakened  state,  as  this  disease  is  apt  to 
do  when  it  attacks  a  man  over  fifty.  However,  he 
was  thought  to  have  recovered  sufficiently  to  visit 
the  King  and  Queen  of  Italy  on  the  Riviera  in  the 
autumn,  and  it  was  there,  while  out  driving,  that 
the  Prince  caught  a  severe  cold,  which  brought  on 
an  affection  of  the  throat. 


288      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

The  Princess  herself  undertook,  with  great  ef- 
ficiency, the  chief  responsibility  of  nursing  the  pa- 
tient. But  the  throat  affection  did  not  yield  to 
treatment,  and  the  terrible  suspicion  that  it  might 
never  so  yield  must  often  have  assailed  the  Princess, 
even  in  these  early  months  of  her  husband's  illness. 
But  she  did  not  betray  the  anxiety  gnawing  at  her 
heart;  on  the  contrary,  she  showed  throughout  a 
gallant  optimism  which,  as  we  now  look  back  on  it, 
seems  intensely  pathetic. 

It  was  the  more  necessary  that  the  Princess 
should  never  for  a  moment  relax  her  cheerfulness, 
because  the  patient  himself  soon  began  to  suffer 
from  periods  of  deep  depression.  To  one  friend 
he  even  said  that  his  time  had  already  passed  away, 
and  the  future  belonged  to  his  son;  to  another  he 
declared  that  he  had  become  an  old  man  and  stood 
with  one  foot  in  the  grave. 

On  the  Emperor  William's  ninetieth  birthday, 
March  22,  1887,  the  sailor  son  of  the  Crown  Prin- 
cess, Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  was  formally  be- 
trothed to  his  cousin,  his  mother's  favourite  niece. 
Princess  Irene  of  Hesse. 

During  the  festivities  given  in  honour  of  the 
event,  it  began  to  be  whispered  among  the  guests 
that  the  Crown  Prince's  throat  affection  was  more 
serious  than  had  as  j^et  been  acknowledged.  But 
it  is  said  that  the  word  "cancer"  was  only  first  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  the  case  when,  in  defer- 
ence to  the  highest  medical  advice  of  BerUn,  he  was 


SILVER  WEDDING  289 

sent  to  Ems  to  be  treated  for  "a  bad  cold  with 
bronchial  complications  following  on  measles." 

The  Crown  Prince  and  Princess,  with  their  fam- 
ily, went  to  Ems  in  the  middle  of  April  and  spent 
a  month  there.  Not  only  did  this  bring  no  im- 
provement, but  the  patient  became  perceptibly 
worse.  He  was  brought  back  to  Berlin,  and  a  con- 
sultation of  the  most  eminent  medical  experts,  in- 
cluding Bergmann,  Gerhardt,  and  Wagener,  was 
held,  as  the  result  of  which  a  growth  in  the  throat 
of  a  malignant  character  was  diagnosed. 

Bismarck  in  his  Reminiscences  contradicts  two 
curious  stories  which  are  worth  notice,  if  only  for 
the  reason  that  they  have  obtained  a  certain  amount 
of  currency,  and  one  of  them  is  even  to  be  found  in 
an  English  work  on  the  Emperor  William  II. 

The  first  of  these  stories  is  that,  after  his  return 
from  Ems,  the  Crown  Prince  signed  a  document 
in  which,  in  the  event  of  his  surviving  his  father, 
he  renounced  his  succession  to  the  throne  in  favour 
of  his  eldest  son.  There  is  not,  says  Bismarck,  a 
shadow  of  truth  in  this  story. 

The  other  statement  is  that  any  heir  to  the  Prus- 
sian throne  who  suffers  from  an  incurable  physical 
complaint  is,  by  the  HohenzoUern  family  law,  ex- 
cluded from  the  succession.  The  importance  of 
this  provision,  if  it  really  existed,  is  obvious;  and, 
at  the  period  we  have  now  reached,  when  the  phys- 
ical state  of  the  Crown  Prince  became  a  subject 
of  intense  public  interest,  it  obtained  wide  currency 


290      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

and  no  small  amount  of  credit.  If,  on  a  strict  in- 
terpretation of  such  a  rule,  the  Crown  Prince  was 
excluded  from  the  succession,  it  might  have  been 
argued  that  his  eldest  son  was  also  incapable  of 
succeeding,  owing  to  the  weakened  state  of  his  arm. 
But  Bismarck  declares  categorically  that  the  Ho- 
henzollern  family  law  contains  no  provision  on  the 
matter  at  all,  any  more  than  does  the  text  of  the 
Prussian  constitution. 

Bismarck  goes  on  to  say  that  the  doctors  who 
were  treating  the  Crown  Prince  resolved  at  the  end 
of  May  to  carry  out  the  removal  of  the  larynx  un- 
der an  ansesthetic  without  having  informed  the 
Prince  of  their  intention.  The  Chancellor,  how- 
ever, immediately  raised  objections;  required  that 
they  should  not  proceed  without  the  consent  of  the 
Prince ;  and,  further,  that  as  they  were  dealing  with 
the  successor  to  the  throne,  the  consent  of  the  head 
of  the  dynasty  should  also  be  obtained.  The  old 
Emperor,  therefore,  after  being  informed  of  the 
circumstances  by  Bismarck,  forbade  the  doctors  to 
carry  out  the  operation  without  the  consent  of  the 
Crown  Prince. 

It  must  be  remembered,  in  considering  the  diag- 
nosis of  the  German  experts,  that  laryngology  was 
at  that  time  almost  in  its  infancy,  and  it  was  natural 
that  the  Crown  Princess  should  have  clung  desper- 
ately to  the  belief  that  a  mistake  had  been  made. 
Indeed,  it  is  said  that  Professor  Bergmann  himself 
advised  that  the  opinion  of  some  other  eminent 


SILVER  WEDDING  291 

throat  specialist  should  be  obtained  before  it  was 
decided  to  have  recourse  to  surgical  interference. 

This  was  the  position  when  the  eminent  Eng- 
lish throat  specialist,  Dr.  (afterwards  Sir)  Morell 
Mackenzie  was  summoned.  There  is  no  need  here 
to  go  over  in  detail  the  painful  controversy  which 
was  engendered  by  this  step,  and  which  was  em- 
bittered, not  only  by  thorny  questions  of  profes- 
sional etiquette,  but  also  by  irrelevant  political  pas- 
sions. Our  purpose  is  rather  to  state  the  princi- 
pal facts,  and  leave  the  reader  to  form  his  own  con- 
clusions. 

The  Crown  Princess  was  widely  believed  to  have 
insisted  that  the  English  specialist  should  be  called 
in  simply  because  of  her  English  prejudices,  and 
this  was  considered  an  affront  to  the  medical  pro- 
fession in  Germany.  As  a  matter  of  fact  a  list 
of  the  most  eminent  throat  specialists  in  Europe 
was  drawn  up.  One  was  a  Frenchman,  another  a 
Viennese,  and  the  third  was  Morell  Mackenzie. 
The  Frenchman  was  discarded  for  political  rea- 
sons, the  Viennese  for  other  reasons,  and  it  was  a 
consensus  of  political  and  medical  opinion  which 
led  to  the  choice  of  the  English  specialist. 

On  May  20,  1887,  Dr.  Morell  Mackenzie  ar- 
rived in  Berlin.  The  German  physicians  informed 
him  that  they  believed  they  had  to  deal  with  a  can- 
cer, but  they  desired  his  diagnosis.  Mackenzie 
performed  more  than  one  small  operation  to  serve 
as  a  basis  for  a  microscopic  examination,  which 


292      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

was  entrusted  to  Professor  Virchow,  probably  the 
greatest  phy;siologist  then  living.  It  was  Virchow 
who  reported,  to  the  exultant  relief  and  joy  of  the 
Crown  Princess,  that,  while  he  found  a  certain 
thickening  of  the  membrane,  he  had  "discovered 
nothing  to  excite  suspicions  of  a  wider  and  graver 
disease." 

Henceforth  there  was  a  party  in  Berlin  who  were 
convinced  that  the  growth,  if  growth  it  was,  in  the 
Crown  Prince's  throat  was  benign.  But  it  may 
serve  as  an  illustration  of  the  passions  which  the 
whole  affair  aroused  when  it  is  stated  that  there 
were  many  who  asserted  that  Virchow  had  been 
deliberately  deceived,  and  that  the  English  special- 
ist had  refrained  from  submitting  to  him  those  por- 
tions of  the  membrane  which  would  have  clearly 
shown  the  presence  of  malignant  disease.  It  was 
this  monstrous  accusation  which  chiefly  served  to  in- 
flame the  controversy  on  both  sides. 

Virchow's  report  greatly  relieved  the  anxieties 
of  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  at  the  time,  and, 
relying  on  it  implicitly,  they  went  to  England  with 
their  daughters  in  the  middle  of  June  for  three 
months.  They  stayed  at  first  on  the  healthy  heights 
of  Norwood,  in  the  south  of  London,  going  later  to 
Scotland  and  the  Isle  of  Wight. 

While  at  Norwood  they  saw  many  distinguished 
English  people,  though  even  then  the  Prince  was 
prohibited  from  uttering  a  word  above  his  breath. 
Those  who  met  the  Prince  at  this  time  were  pain- 


SILVER  WEDDING  293 

fully  struck  by  his  appearance.  He  was  much 
thinner,  but  the  Princess,  who,  being  always  with 
him,  did  not  notice  the  gradual  change  which  had 
come  over  him,  was  full  of  hope.  Indeed,  she 
found  time  to  continue  her  interest  in  social  work. 
She  was  present  at  a  gathering  held  in  Drapers' 
Hall  to  promote  the  training  of  women  teachers, 
and  her  old  friend  Lord  Granville  made  a  charm- 
ing little  speech  about  her  yputh. 

The  Crown  Prince  was  present  with  his  wife 
at  Queen  Victoria's  Golden  Jubilee,  and  it  is  still 
remembered  how  great  an  impression  was  made  on 
the  London  populace  by  his  knightly  figure  in  his 
white  Cuirassier  uniform.  His  was  the  central  and 
by  far  the  most  magnificent  presence,  like  some 
paladin  of  mediaeval  chivalry,  in  the  mounted  es- 
cort of  princes  which  surrounded  the  venerable 
Sovereign  on  her  way  to  and  from  Westminster 
Abbey. 

During  their  stay  in  Scotland,  the  Crown  Prince 
was  asked  by  a  gentleman  to  name  his  steam  launch. 
He  chose  the  name  The  White  Heather,  showing 
how  his  thoughts  travelled  back  to  the  day,  nearly 
thirty  years  before,  when  he  had  gathered  on  a 
Scotch  mountain  the  symbolic  sprig  of  white 
heather  to  give  to  the  Princess  Royal. 

The  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  returned  to 
Germany  in  the  middle  of  September,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  Toblach,  in  the  Tyrol.  But  the  climate 
there  was  considered  too  chilly,  and  the  patient 


294      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

was  moved  to  Venice  at  the  end  of  the  month.  It 
was  from  Venice  that  the  Prince  wrote  to  an  old 
friend  a  pathetic  letter  full  of  hope,  in  which  he 
said  that  the  real  trouble  was  now  overcome,  and 
that  it  was  only  necessary  to  avoid  speaking  and 
catching  cold.  Early  in  October  the  Prince  was 
again  moved  to  Baveno,  on  Lake  Maggiore,  and 
at  the  beginning  of  November  to  the  Villa  Zirio, 
at  San  Remo.  From  San  Remo  the  Princess  tele- 
graphed for  Dr.  Morell  Mackenzie,  who  arrived 
on  November  5. 

The  Villa  Zirio  was  a  comfortable  house  stand- 
ing in  its  own  grounds.  The  first  floor,  which  con- 
sisted of  two  suites  of  large  rooms,  was  occupied 
by  the  Crown  Prince  and  Princess.  On  this  floor 
were  also  the  rooms  of  the  Princess's  lady-in-wait- 
ing. Countess  von  Bruschl.  The  second  floor  was 
assigned  to  the  three  young  princesses  and  the  rest 
of  the  suite. 

Unfortunately,  owing  to  the  great  curiosity  and 
anxiety  felt  all  over  Europe  as  to  the  progress  of 
the  Crown  Prince's  illness,  the  little  Italian  town 
was  filled  with  newspaper  representatives,  their 
headquarters  being  a  large  hotel  opposite  the  Villa 
Zirio.  In  fact,  during  the  winter  of  1887-8,  all 
the  world  was  watching  the  race  between  the  two 
lives — that  of  the  ninety-year-old  Emperor,  and 
that  of  his  son,  already  stricken  with  a  mortal  dis- 
ease, on  whom  so  many  fair  hopes  rested. 

The  Crown  Prince  and  Princess  owed  a  great 


SILVER  WEDDING  295 

deal,  at  this  troubled  period  of  their  lives,  to  the 
devotion  and  vigilant  loyalty  of  their  friend  and 
servant.  Count  Theodor  Seckendorff ,  whose  official 
position  in  the  Crown  Princess's  Household  was 
that  of  "chambellan." 

Seckendorff  was  once  well  described  by  an  Eng- 
lish friend  as  "the  Baldassare  Castiglione  of  the 
present  day."  He  was,  indeed,  "the  perfect  cour- 
tier." His  father,  a  distinguished  diplomatist,  had 
been  attached  to  the  Prussian  Legation  in  London, 
and  so  the  Count  knew  England  and  the  English 
intimately.  Indeed,  he  had  obtained  leave  to  ac- 
company Lord  Napier  of  Magdala  on  the  Abys- 
sinian campaign,  and  he  was  also  with  that  distin- 
guished commander  on  the  North- West  frontier 
of  India.  Afterwards  he  was  on  the  staff  of  the 
Crown  Prince  in  the  Franco-German  War,  and 
was  chosen  by  the  latter  to  be  one  of  the  officers 
to  escort  Napoleon  III  to  Wilhelmshohe.  There- 
after the  Count's  relationship  with  the  Crown 
Prince  and  Princess  became  even  closer. 

A  man  of  fine  literary  and  artistic  taste,  and  a 
really  good  artist,  Count  Seckendorff  spoke  Eng- 
lish, Italian,  and  French  with  ease  and  distinction, 
and  he  retained — what  few  men  and  women  seem 
able  to  retain  in  the  world  of  Courts — a  great  sim- 
plicity of  manner  and  absolute  sincerity  of  nature. 
While  patriotically  devoted  to  his  own  country,  he 
was  also  a  true  lover  of  England,  and  he  always 
did  everything  that  lay  in  his  power  to  ease  the 


296      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

often  strained  relations  between  the  two  nations. 
After  the  death  of  the  Empress  Frederick,  Count 
Seckendorff  continued  in  faithful  and  kindly  touch 
with  her  native  country.  He  organised  the  Loan 
Exhibition  of  British  Art  in  Berlin  as  late  as  1908, 
and  his  premature  death,  two  years  later,  caused 
much  sorrow  to  a  large  circle  of  attached  friends  in 
both  London  and  Berlin. 

To  return  to  the  life  at  San  Remo;  in  a  letter 
written  about  this  time  the  Crown  Princess  says: 

"We  are  passing  through  a  time  of  heavy  trial, 
but  the  knowledge  that  the  nation  has  not  forgotten 
us,  and  that  it  hopes  and  sympathises  with  us,  is  a 
perpetual  source  of  comfort.  If  it  be  God's  will, 
this  confidence  will  remain  the  Crown  Prince's  most 
valued  future  possession,  and  be  the  greatest  help 
to  him  in  achieving  his  noble  ideals.  Who  can 
tell  how  many  day^  may  yet  be  granted  to  him? 
But  when  we  see  him  so  virile  and  fresh,  we  can 
only  trust  to  the  strength  of  his  constitution  and 
believe  that  his  health  will  not  fail  him  in  carrying 
out  his  duties,  though  even  in  the  happiest  circum- 
stances he  will  have  to  economise  his  strength  and 
use  his  voice  as  little  as  possible." 

From  San  Remo,  too,  the  Crown  Prince  wrote 
to  his  beloved  French  tutor  a  touching  letter,  in 
which  occurs  the  following  passage: 

"As  to  the  life  we  are  leading  here,  it  could  not 
be  more  intimate  and  more  gejniitlich.  First  of 
all,  my  wife  nurses  me  as  might  a  true  Sister  of 


SILVER  WEDDING  297 

Charity,  with  a  calm  and  knowledge  truly  admir- 
able. Our  daughters  surround  us  with  their  loving 
tenderness,  and  the  Riviera  is  a  delightful  climate 
and  does  us  much  good." 

Even  then,  the  Crown  Princess  had  not  given 
up  hope.  Her  husband  still  looked  in  good  health ; 
he  slept  well,  and  his  appetite  was  excellent. 

On  December  1,  the  Princess  herself  wrote  to 
M.  Godet: 

"We  are  profoundly  touched  by  the  many  proofs 
of  syjnpathy  which  reach  us  from  all  sides.  I  can- 
not help  feeling  that  it  must  make  you  very  happy 
to  know  that  all  the  care  you  took,  in  old  days,  in 
developing  that  pure  and  noble  soul,  has  now 
brought  to  him  these  universal  tributes  of  respect 
and  confidence." 

Alas,  even  then  the  Prince  had  heard  from  the 
physicians  his  sentence  of  death,  which  he  received 
with  the  same  stoicism  he  had  shown  on  the  field  of 
battle. 

Christmas  came,  and  was  celebrated  with  char- 
acteristic kindliness  by  the  Prince,  who  arranged 
magnificent  gifts  for  his  wife  and  the  little  circle 
of  intimate  friends  at  San  Remo.  But  his  health 
steadily  declined,  and  a  sudden  operation  had  to 
be  performed  early  in  January. 

Meanwhile  the  aged  Emperor  had  caught  a  chill 
in  the  severe  Berlin  winter.  His  magnificent  con- 
stitution was  already  enfeebled  by  age,  and  to  his 
physical  weakness  were  now  added  the  distress  and 


298      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

anxiety  caused  by  the  news  from  San  Remo,  which 
became  continually  more  and  more  disquieting. 
The  end  soon  came,  and  the  stout  old  soldier  sank 
and  died  on  March  9,  1888,  less  than  a  fortnight 
before  his  ninety-second  birthday. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE   HUNDRED   DAYs'   REIGN 

On  the  morning  of  March  9,  1888,  the  Crown 
Prince  was  walking  in  the  gardens  of  the  Villa 
Zirio,  when  a  telegram  was  brought  to  him.  He 
took  it  up  with  languid  interest,  but  when  he  read 
the  address,  "To  His  Imperial  Majesty  the  Em- 
peror Frederick  William,"  there  was  no  need  to 
open  the  envelope,  and  it  is  said  that  his  habitual 
self-control  deserted  him,  and  he  burst  into  tears. 

A  pathetic,  and  yet  in  its  way  a  magnificent, 
scene  followed  in  the  great  drawing-room  on  the 
ground  floor  of  the  villa.  The  Households  of  the 
new  Emperor  and  Empress  had  assembled  there 
and  stood  in  a  circle  waiting.  .  .  . 

Suddenly  the  Emperor  appeared,  and  we  have 
the  following  striking  description  from  one  who 
claims  to  have  been  a  witness  of  what  occurred: 

"He  had  become  handsome  again,  as  in  the 
radiant  days  of  his  youth.  His  beard,  with  a  few 
silver  streaks,  glowed  in  the  brilliant  light  cast  by 
the  chandelier.  Tall  and  well  built,  he  dominated 
the  entire  company.  His  blue  eyes  were  sMghtly 
misty.  His  delicate  complexion,  now  heightened 
with  a  little  colour,  seemed  to  show  the  real  tran- 
quillity which  had  taken  possession  of  his  soul ;  and 

299 


300      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

his  mouth  with  the  red  lips  had  now  that  fascinating 
smile  which  characterised  him.  With  a  firm  step 
he  walked  straight  to  a  small  table  in  the  middle 
of  the  drawing-room  and  wrote — for  the  tube  in 
his  throat  prevented  him  from  speaking — a  few 
lines,  which  he  signed.  An  officer  read  out  the 
paper  aloud' — it  was  the  announcement  of  the  death 
of  the  Emperor  William  I  and  of  his  own  accession 
as  Frederick  III.  The  Emperor  then  walked 
towards  the  Empress,  made  a  long  and  reverent 
bow,  paying  full  homage  to  his  wife's  devotion, 
and  with  a  grave  and  tender  gesture  passed  round 
her  neck  the  Ribbon  of  the  Black  Eagle." 

It  is  also  recorded  that  the  Emperor  walked  up 
to  Dr.  Morell  Mackenzie  and,  after  shaking  him 
warmly  by  the  hand,  wrote  for  him  the  following 
words:  "I  thank  you  for  having  made  me  live 
long  enough  to  recompense  the  valiant  courage  of 
my  wife." 

The  Emperor  Frederick,  with  the  Empress  and 
their  daughters,  set  out  for  Berlin  on  March  10, 
making  what  was  then  the  swiftest  journey  in  the 
records  of  Continental  travel.  The  only  interrup- 
tion, and  that  was  very  short,  was  to  enable  the 
Emperor  to  receive  the  greetings  of  his  old  friend. 
King  Humbert  of  Italy,  who  had  himself  travelled 
by  forced  marches  for  the  purpose. 

Amid  a  terrible  storm  of  sleet  and  snow,  on  the 
night  of  March  11,  the  Imperial  party  entered 
Berlin. 


THE  HUNDRED  DAYS'  REIGN    301 

Those  who  then  saw  the  Emperor,  whatever 
their  pohtical  predilections,  were  amazed  at  his 
look  of  health  and  strength.  For  months  past  a 
thick  veil  of  secrecy  had  been  drawn  over  the  life 
at  the  Villa  Zirio.  Naturally,  therefore,  rmnour 
had  had  it  all  her  own  way,  and  in  Germany  the 
general  pessimism  was  undoubtedly  fostered 
by  the  medical  profession.  They  had  persuaded 
themselves  that  the  Emperor  was  already  in 
articulo  mortis,  and  the  Empress  was  openly  cen- 
sured for  bringing  him  back  at  all.  It  was  even 
believed  by  many  that  he  might  very  well  die  on 
the  journey  owing  to  the  sudden  transition  from 
the  warm,  equable  climate  of  San  Remo  to  the 
biting  cold  of  Berlin. 

The  one  certain  fact  which  had  been  published 
was  that  he  had  undergone  the  operation  of  trache- 
otomy, and  that  he  could  not  speak  owing  to  the 
tube  in  his  throat.  But,  apart  from  that,  to  the 
general  astonishment,  the  Emperor  was,  or  seemed 
to  be,  not  very  different  from  his  normal  condi- 
tion. At  once  he  took  up  the  reins  of  power, 
granting  audiences,  and  dealing  for  many  hours 
every  day  with  State  affairs. 

Though  the  jo}^  with  which  the  friends  of  the 
new  Emperor  and  Empress  hailed  their  accession 
was  dashed  by  the  thought  of  how  brief  must  be 
the  new  reign,  yet  it  is  abundantly  evident  that 
no  such  idea  occurred  to  the  Empress  herself,  and 


302      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

that  very  fact  seems  to  enhance  the  poignancy  of 
the  whole  tragedy. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Emperor  Frederick's 
reign,  a  distinguished  German  wrote  to  a  friend: 
"The  Empress,  as  you  have  rightly  judged,  is 
making  her  way  among  the  people.  However 
brief  her  tenure  of  power  will  be,  the  more  will 
the  public  at  large  perceive  the  truly  astounding 
richness  and  resource,  the  practised  leadership,  and 
the  affectionate  disposition  of  that  rare  creature. 
She  is  indefatigable,  and  gives  a  fresh  indication 
of  the  grand  aims  she  has  in  view  each  day." 

It  is  significant  to  note  how  all  those  who  knew 
the  Empress  even  slightly  welcomed  the  fact  of 
the  Emperor's  accession.  Thus  Mrs.  Augustus 
Craven:  "Somehow  I  hope  the  present  Emperor 
will  live.  Anyhow  I  am  thankful  that  he  is  still 
alive,  and  that  she  is  Empress  of  Germany,  also 
that  perhaps  after  all  the  very  great  deal  there  is 
in  her  is  not  to  be  lost  for  Germany  and  for 
Europe." 

The  feeling  in  the  Court  and  political  world  is 
clearly  shown  in  the  memoirs  of  Prince  Hohen- 
lohe.  He  was  received  by  the  Empress  a  week 
after  her  return  to  Berlin,  and  he  says  that  he 
found  her  unchanged;  "her  frank  and  cheerful 
manlier  filled  me  with  astonishment." 

Three  days  later  Prince  Hohenlohe  noted  in  his 
diary  that  already  officials  were  complaining  of 
the  interference  of  the  Empress  in  public  business. 


THE  LATE  EMPRESS   FREDERICK 


THE  HUNDRED  DAYS'  REIGN    803 

Botticher  told  him  that  she  had  induced  the  Em- 
peror to  refuse  his  signature  to  the  Anti- Socialist 
Bill,  and  that  he  had  only  given  way  after  Bismarck 
had  explained  the  matter  to  the  Empress.  The 
Minister  added  that  the  Emperor  had  little  power 
of  resistance  to  the  influence  of  the  Empress,  and 
that  she,  again,  was  under  the  influence  of  "cer- 
tain advanced  ladies."  If  the  Emperor's  illness, 
he  went  on,  was  of  long  duration,  all  kinds  of  things 
might  happen,  but  if  the  Emperor  were  well,  or 
should  become  so,  the  influence  of  the  Empress 
would  diminish. 

A  few  days  later  Prince  Hohenlohe  was  him- 
self able  to  judge  how  far  this  was  true  about  the 
Empress,  for  he  went  out  to  call  on  his  Sovereign 
at  Charlottenburg,  and  found  him  with  his  wife. 
The  Empress  excused  her  presence  by  pleading 
the  necessity  of  supporting  the  Emperor  during 
the  audience.  The  whole  of  the  conversation  had 
to  be  carried  on,  so  far  as  the  Emperor  was  con- 
cerned, by  means  of  writing-tablets.  Hohenlohe 
observed  that  the  Emperor  would  benefit  by  the 
amount  of  work  he  had  to  do,  at  which  the  Sover- 
eign nodded  approvingly.  At  the  end  of  the  in- 
terview : 

"The  Emperor  placed  his  hand  on  my  shoulder 
and  smiled  sadly,  so  that  I  could  hardly  restrain 
my  tears.  He  gave  me  the  impression  of  a  martyr; 
and,  indeed,  no  martyrdom  in  the  world  is  com- 
parable   with    this    slow    death.     Everyone    who 


304      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

comes  near  him  is  full  of  admiration  for  his  cour- 
ageous and  quiet  resignation  to  a  fate  which  is  in- 
evitable, and  which  he  fully  realises." 

But  it  is  plain  that  the  Empress  had  not  yet 
resigned  herself  to  consider  his  death  as  in  any 
way  imminent.  Later  in  the  same  month,  Hohen- 
lohe  had  an  audience  of  the  Empress,  and  during 
their  conversation  she  said  something  which  made 
it  clear  to  her  old  friend  that  she  still  entertained 
illusions  as  to  her  husband's  real  condition — in- 
deed, he  was  himself  so  shaken  by  what  she  said 
that  he  wrote  in  his  diary:  "It  is  perhaps  possi- 
ble that  the  illness  will  be  of  long  duration.  The 
expectation  of  a  speedy  end  has  not  yet  been  con- 
firmed." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  accession  of  the 
Emperor  Frederick  was  expected  in  not  a  few 
quarters  to  mean  the  almost  immediate  fall  of  Bis- 
marck, but  this  expectation  left  out  of  account 
various  important  factors  of  the  situation.  Both 
the  new  Emperor  and  his  Empress,  though,  as  we 
have  seen,  they  profoundly  disapproved  of  Bis- 
marck's policy  as  a  whole,  nevertheless  fully 
realised  the  Chancellor's  patriotism  and  the  un- 
paralleled services  which  he  had  been  able  to  render 
to  the  German  people.  Bismarck,  in  his  own  ac- 
count of  his  relations  with  the  Emperor,  recalls 
that  they  began  as  far  back  as  1848,  when  Prince 
Frederick  William  was  only  seventeen,  and  he 
had  since  received  from  him  various  proofs  of  per- 


THE  HUNDRED  DAYS'  REIGN     305 

sonal  confidence,  notably  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Dantzig  episode  in  1863.  This  confidence  was, 
Bismarck  declares,  quite  independent  of  political 
principles  and  differences  of  opinion,  and  though 
many  attempts  to  shake  it  were  made  from  inter- 
ested quarters,  they  had  no  permanent  success. 

Later  Bismarck  also  asserted  roundly  that  the 
Emperor  Frederick  made  it  easy  for  him,  by  his 
amiabihty  and  confidence,  to  transfer  to  him  the 
affection  he  had  cherished  for  his  father.  He  was 
both  more  open  than  his  father  had  been  to  the 
constitutional  idea  of  Ministerial  responsibility, 
and  also  less  hampered  by  family  traditions  in  ad- 
justing himself  to  political  necessities.  And  Bis- 
marck goes  on  to  state  that  "all  assertions  of  last- 
ing discord  in  our  relations  are  unfounded." 

On  the  subject  of  the  Crown  Princess's  influence 
Bismarck  said: 

"I  could  not  assume  that  his  wife  had  the  same 
kindly  feeling  for  me ;  her  natural  innate  sympathy 
for  her  home  had,  from  the  beginning,  shown  itself 
in  the  attempt  to  turn  the  weight  of  Prusso-Ger- 
man  influence  in  the  groupings  of  European  power 
into  the  scale  of  her  native  land;  and  she  never 
ceased  to  regard  England  as  her  country.  In  the 
differences  of  interest  between  the  two  Asiatic 
Powers,  England  and  Russia,  she  wished  to  see  the 
German  power  applied  in  the  interests  of  England 
if  it  came  to  a  breach.  This  difference  of  opinion, 
which    rested    on    the    difference    of   nationality. 


306      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

caused  many  a  discussion  between  her  Royal  High- 
ness and  me  on  the  Eastern  question,  including 
the  Battenberg  question.  Her  influence  on  her 
husband  was  at  all  times  great,  and  it  increased 
with  years,  to  culminate  at  the  time  when  he  was 
Emperor.  She  also,  however,  shared  with  him 
the  conviction  that  in  the  interests  of  the  dynasty 
it  was  necessary  that  I  should  be  maintained  in 
office  at  the  change  of  reign." 

It  is  interesting  here  to  recall  that  on  August 
31,  1870,  after  the  battle  of  Beaumont,  Busch  ob- 
tained from  Bismarck  the  following  opinion  of  the 
then  Crown  Prince: 

"He  will  be  reasonable  later  on,  and  allow  his 
Ministers  to  govern  more,  and  not  put  himself  too 
much  forward,  and  in  general  he  will  get  rid  of 
many  bad  habits  that  render  old  gentlemen  of  his 
trade  sometimes  rather  troublesome.  [It  is  to  be 
feared  that  this  uncomplimentary  allusion  is  to  the 
old  Emperor.]  For  the  rest,  he  is  unaffected  and 
straightforward;  but  he  does  not  care  to  work 
much,  and  is  quite  happy  if  he  has  plenty  of  money 
and  amusements,  and  if  the  newspapers  praise 
him." 

A  ver}'^  superficial  judgment  of  the  Emperor 
Frederick,  and  the  suggestion  that  he  was  too  fond 
of  money  is  particularly  gratuitous.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  only  the  year  before  his  accession,  in  1887, 
a  certain  Frenchman,  Ballardin  by  name,  died, 
leaving  the  whole  of  his  fortune,  valued  at  several 


THE  HUNDRED  DAYS'  REIGN    307 

million  francs,  to  the  then  Crown  Prince.  M.  Bal- 
lardin  appeared  to  have  been  so  embittered  by- 
disputes  with  the  French  authorities  that  he  deter- 
mined to  show  his  hatred  and  contempt  for  his  na- 
tive country  by  the  novel  method  of  bequeathing 
his  property  to  the  German  Crown  Prince,  who, 
however,  absolutely  refused  to  accept  even  the 
smallest  portion  of  the  legacy.  That  is  certainly 
not  the  action  of  a  man  who  could  be  accused  of  a 
love  of  money. 

It  may  here  be  stated,  on  this  subject  of  money, 
that  when  the  Emperor  Frederick  succeeded  to  the 
throne,  there  was  in  the  hands  of  Baron  Kohn, 
the  private  banker  of  the  old  Emperor  William, 
a  sum  of  fifty-four  million  marks  (£2,700,000), 
which  was  bequeathed  to  the  Emperor  Frederick 
as  a  kind  of  family  treasure,  to  be  controlled  by  the 
head  of  the  House  of  Hohenzollern  for  the  time 
being.  When  the  Emperor  Frederick  died,  how- 
ever, it  was  found  that  the  great  bulk  of  this  money 
had  been  invested  abroad  by  his  orders  in  the  name 
of  his  widow;  her  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg- 
Gotha,  and  her  cousin.  King  Leopold  of  Belgium, 
being  the  trustees.  It  is  even  asserted  that  the 
late  Prince  Stolberg  resigned  at  the  time  his  office 
of  Minister  of  the  Imperial  Household  in  conse- 
quence of  what  he  considered  the  diversion  of  this 
sum  of  money  from  the  Hohenzollern  family. 
According  to  another  version,  however,  only  a  por- 
tion of  this  money  became  the  absolute  property  of 


308      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  Empress,  the  remainder  being  hers  for  life, 
with  power  of  appointment  among  her  younger 
children. 

To  return  to  Busch;  he  also  obtained  from  Bis- 
marck a  curious  anecdote  of  the  Empress: 

"I  took  the  liberty  to  ask  further  what  sort  of 
woman  the  Crown  Princess  was,  and  whether  she 
had  much  influence  over  her  husband.  'I  think 
not,'  the  Count  said;  *and  as  to  her  intelligence, 
she  is  a  clever  woman;  clever  in  a  womanly  way. 
She  is  not  able  to  disguise  her  feelings,  or  at  least 
not  always.  I  have  cost  her  many  tears,  and  she 
could  not  conceal  how  angry  she  was  with  me  after 
the  annexations  (that  is  to  say  of  Schleswig  and 
Hanover) .  She  could  hardly  bear  the  sight  of 
me,  but  that  feeling  has  now  somewhat  subsided. 
She  once  asked  me  to  bring  her  a  glass  of  water, 
and  as  I  handed  it  to  her  she  said  to  a  lady-in-wait- 
ing who  sat  near  and  whose  name  I  forget,  *He 
has  cost  me  as  many  tears  as  there  is  water  in  this 
glass.'     But  that  is  all  over  now." 

This  incident  about  the  glass  of  water  evidently 
much  impressed  Bismarck,  for  he  told  it  to  Busch 
again  some  months  later,  when  he  said  of  the  Crown 
Princess,  "She  is  in  general  a  very  clever  person, 
and  really  agreeable  in  her  way,  but  she  should  not 
interfere  in  politics." 

The  Empress's  relations  with  Bismarck  after 
her  husband's  accession  were  more  pleasant  than 
they  had  ever  been  before.     The  Emperor  natu- 


THE  HUNDRED  DAYS'  REIGN    309 

rally  leaned  upon  his  wife,  and  her  influence  per- 
haps appeared  greater  than  it  was.  But,  whatever 
its  precise  extent,  Bismarck,  with  his  intensely  prac- 
tical mind,  saw  that  it  was  at  any  rate  a  factor  in 
the  situation,  and  he  made  use  of  it  accordingly. 
It  was,  indeed,  as  natural  for  him  to  cultivate  her 
good  will  now,  as  it  was  for  him  a  little  later  to 
heap  contumely  and  insult  on  her  head.  Such  con- 
duct was  utterly  incomprehensible  to  the  Empress, 
with  her  upright,  loyal  nature ;  she  would  have  suf- 
fered less  from  the  Chancellor  had  she  been  able 
to  find  the  key  to  both  his  greatness  and  his  little- 
ness. 

But,  even  at  this  time,  when  Bismarck  had  the 
strongest  reasons  for  conciliating  the  Empress, 
there  was  one  question,  that  of  the  Battenberg  mar- 
riage, on  which  he  felt  compelled  to  do  battle  with 
her,  and  in  which  he  vanquished  her  in  fair  fight. 

The  Empress,  different  as  she  was  in  many  re- 
spects from  her  mother,  was  absolutely  at  one  with 
Queen  Victoria  in  her  views  of  everything  which 
should  regulate  family  life.  Thus,  she  was  as 
firm  a  believer  in  the  importance  of  securing  happy 
marriages  for  her  sons  and  daughters  as  the 
Queen  had  proved  herself  to  be.  That  the  union 
of  two  human  beings  should  be  guided  by  State 
considerations  was  to  her  abhorrent.  She  had  wel- 
comed with  eager  delight  her  niece.  Princess  Irene 
of  Hesse,  as  a  daughter-in-law;  she  knew  that  the 
latter's   sister.   Princess   Victoria,  had   formed   a 


310      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

happy  marriage  with  Prince  Louis  of  Battenberg. 
Now  it  was  Prince  Louis's  brother,  Alexander  of 
Bulgaria,  who  had  been  from  boyhood  a  favourite 
with  her  sister,  Princess  Alice,  whom  the  Empress 
desired  to  see  married  to  her  second  daughter. 
Princess  Victoria.  The  alliance  had  been  mooted 
some  four  years  before,  but  was  then  considered,  by 
Bismarck  especially,  as  quite  out  of  the  question,  if 
only  because  the  hero  of  Slivnitza  had  earned  the 
intense  hostility  of  the  Tsar  Alexander. 

In  July,  1885,  Bismarck  told  Hohenlohe  that, 
whereas  the  Emperor  and  the  Crown  Prince  were 
in  favour  of  the  marriage  of  Princess  Victoria  with 
the  King  of  Portugal,  the  Crown  Princess  and 
the  young  Princess  herself  preferred  the  Prince  of 
Bulgaria,  and  that  there  was  "great  skirmishing" 
going  on  over  the  business. 

More  than  a  year  later,  in  October,  1886,  the 
old  Emperor  himself  spoke  to  Hohenlohe  of  the 
matter,  and  with  some  bitterness,  declaring  that 
the  Crown  Princess  and  Princess  Victoria  still  en- 
tertained the  idea  of  this  alliance.  He  said  he 
had  questioned  the  Crown  Prince,  who  had  denied 
it,  and  he  further  observed  that  in  politics  his  son 
was  ruled  by  his  wife. 

In  1888  the  Empress  still  desired  the  marriage 
because  she  believed  that  the  affections  of  her 
daughter  were  seriously  engaged.  But,  changed 
as  were  all  the  conditions  of  her  own  and  the  new 
Emperor's  life,  she  at  once  found  arrayed  against 


THE  HUNDRED  DAYS'  REIGN    311 

her  the  same  powerful  influences  as  before,  with  the 
addition  of  that  of  her  eldest  son,  the  new  Crown 
Prince.  The  difference  of  opinion  in  the  Imperial 
family  became  known  to  the  whole  of  Europe,  and 
was  very  frankly  discussed  in  the  English  and  Con- 
tinental Press.  Matters  seemed  at  a  deadlock. 
On  the  one  side  were  ranged  the  Empress  and  all 
those  Royal  personages  who  by  kinship  or  marriage 
were  connected  with  the  Battenberg  family;  on  the 
other  were  the  Crown  Prince,  Bismarck,  and,  it 
was  whispered,  the  Emperor  Frederick  himself, 
who  had  a  great  dislike  to  any  marriage  that' 
savoured  of  a  mesalliance. 

This  was  the  position  when  Queen  Victoria  ar- 
rived at  Charlottenburg  to  visit  her  stricken  son-in- 
law.  Bismarck,  with  his  usual  unerring  eye  for  the 
potentialities  of  a  situation,  seized  the  opportunity. 
He  sought  an  audience  of  the  Queen,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  convincing  her  by  his  arguments  that  the 
Battenberg  alliance  was  really  extremely  inad- 
visable. Not  until  she  found  her  mother  ranged 
among  the  opponents  of  the  marriage  did  the  Em- 
press yield,  and  consent,  to  use  her  own  phrase, 
"to  sacrifice  her  daughter's  happiness  on  the  altar 
of  the  Fatherland." 

We  have  a  slightly  different,  and  probably  less 
accurate,  account  of  the  termination  of  the  affair 
in  Hohenlohe's  journal  of  May  17,  1888: 

"The  Empress  had  said  that  in  the  end  it  would 
be  no  misfortune  if  Bismarck  did  retire.     This  wais 


312      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

at  once  retailed  to  him,  whereupon  the  newspaper 
war.  Malet  reported  to  Queen  Victoria  at  Flor- 
ence that  it  was  very  disadvantageous  for  English 
interests  that  the  Queen  should  appear  to  interest 
herself  in  the  Battenberg  match.  It  would  be 
well,  more  particularly  in  view  of  her  impending 
visit  to  Berhn,  to  prevent  people  from  thinking 
she  favoured  the  marriage.  The  English  Minis- 
try also  concurred  in  this.  Thereupon  Queen  Vic- 
toria wrote  a  severe  letter  to  her  daughter,  the 
Empress;  and  during  her  stay  also  she  expounded 
her  views  in  an  energetic  fashion,  which  produced 
unhappy  and  tearful  scenes.  The  relations  be- 
tween Queen  Victoria  and  the  Imperial  Chancellor 
have  shaped  very  well.  They  were  enchanted  with 
each  other." 

The  Empress's  belief  that  she  had  been  fight- 
ing for  her  daughter's  happiness  added  a  special 
bitterness  to  her  defeat  at  the  hands  of  Bismarck. 
It  may,  however,  be  stated  that  the  day  came  when 
the  Empress  Frederick  acknowledged  that  she  had 
been  mistaken,  at  least  to  some  extent,  in  the  quali- 
ties which  she  had  attributed  to  Alexander  of  Bat- 
tenberg, and  she  lived  to  see  her  daughter  make  a 
happier  marriage  than  the  Battenberg  alliance 
would  probably  have  ever  been. 

Not  the  least  pathetic  feature  of  the  Hundred 
Day's  reign  was  the  gallant  persistence  of  the 
Empress  in  fulfilling  the  duties  of  her  new  station. 
She  only  held  one  Court,  and  one  who  was  present 


THE  HUNDRED  DAYS'  REIGN    313 

has  left  a  vivid  description  of  the  strange  scene: 

**The  Empress  was  dressed  in  the  deepest  mourn- 
ing, indeed  wrapped  in  black  from  head  to  foot, 
her  face  hidden  by  a  crape  veil,  while  a  long  pro- 
cession of  women  likewise  veiled  in  crape  filed  past 
the  throne,  their  black  gowns  high  in  the  neck  and 
skirts  banded  with  crape  a  quarter  of  a  yard  wide, 
while  long  folds  of  double  crape  fell  upon  the  floor 
in  guise  of  Court  trains." 

On  May  24,  the  marriage  of  Prince  Henry,  the 
second  son  of  the  Emperor  and  Empress,  to  his 
cousin.  Princess  Irene  of  Hesse,  was  celebrated 
at  Charlottenburg.  It  was  a  bright  and  happy 
day  in  the  midst  of  sadness,  and  everything  was 
done  to  surround  the  ceremony  with  brilliance. 

Death  was  now  drawing  very  near  to  the  doomed 
Emperor.  On  June  1  he  was  conveyed  by  boat 
from  Charlottenburg  to  the  New  Palace,  where  he 
had  been  born,  where  he  had  spent  the  happiest 
days  of  his  married  life,  and  the  name  of  which  he 
now  changed  to  "Friedrichskron."  But  he  was  not 
allowed  to  die  in  peace ;  his  last  days  were  disturbed 
by  what  is  known  as  the  Puttkamer  incident. 

Puttkamer,  a  typical  Bismarckian,  had  been 
Minister  of  the  Interior  for  seven  years.  In  his 
official  announcement  of  the  old  Emperor's  death, 
he  had  actually  made  no  allusion  to  the  new  Em- 
peror; the  latter  in  consequence  insisted  on  the 
Minister's  retirement  as  the  condition  of  his  sign- 
ing the  Bill  prolonging  the  life  of  the  Reichstag 


314      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

to  five  years.  Puttkamer's  resignation  was  ga- 
zetted on  June  11,  and  on  the  same  evening  Prince 
Bismarck  gave  a  dinner  at  which  the  fallen  Min- 
ister was  the  guest  of  honour. 

The  Emperor  Frederick  died  at  Friedrichskron 
on  June  15.  The  first  message  written  by  the 
widowed  Empress  was  to  the  aged  Empress 
Augusta: 

"She  whose  one  pride  and  happiness  it  was  to 
be  the  wife  of  your  son  grieves  with  you,  afflicted 
mother.  No  mother  ever  had  so  good  a  son.  Be 
proud  and  strong  in  your  sorrow." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

EAELY  widowhood:      THE  FAUL.  OF  BISMARCK 

It  is  said  that  one  of  the  last  acts  of  the  dying  Em- 
peror was  to  place  Bismarck's  hand  in  that  of  the 
Empress  as  a  token  of  reconciliation.  But  there 
was  no  reconciliation.  On  the  contrary,  the  Em- 
peror Frederick  was  no  sooner  dead,  than  Bis- 
marck once  more  became  all-powerful,  and  ruth- 
lessly he  used  his  power. 

The  accession  of  the  young  Emperor  William 
was  followed  by  an  astounding  outburst  of  violence 
against  the  Empress  Frederick  on  the  part  of  Bis- 
marck's tools,  his  agents  in  the  Press  and  else- 
where— ^indeed,  the  Empress  once  told  an  intimate 
friend  that  no  humiliation  and  pain  which  could  be 
inflicted  on  her  had  been  spared  her. 

The  first  humiliation  took  a  strange  and  terrible 
form;  a  cordon  of  soldiers  was  drawn  round  the 
New  Palace,  when  the  Emperor  Frederick  was 
known  to  be  dying,  in  order  that  no  secret  docu- 
ments might  be  removed  without  the  knowledge  of 
the  new  Emperor. 

The  Empress,  aware  that  this  was  the  work  of 
Bismarck,  requested  an  interview  with  him,  but 
Bismarck  replied  that  he  had  no  time,  as  he  was  so 
fully  occupied  with  his  master,  the  new  Emperor. 

315 


816      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  everything  at  the  New  Palace 
which  the  late  Emperor  or  the  Empress  Frederick 
considered  to  be  important  had  been  placed  out  of 
Bismarck's  reach.  For  a  considerable  time  these 
private  papers  were  entrusted  to  the  care  of  a  per- 
son in  the  Empress's  confidence,  who  resided  out- 
side the  country,  ultimately  they  were  sent  back 
to  Germany. 

Unfortunately  not  all  the  late  Emperor's  papers 
had  been  so  carefully  guarded,  and,  to  the  anguish 
of  his  widow,  his  memory  became  involved  in  acute, 
and  it  may  even  be  said  degrading,  controversy. 

In  the  well-known  review,  the  Deutsche  Rund- 
schau, Dr.  Geffcken,  a  Liberal  publicist  who  had 
been  honoured  by  the  Emperor  Frederick's  friend- 
ship, published  extracts  from  the  diary  of  the  late 
Sovereign.  They  were  designed  to  defend  his 
memory  against  his  traducers,  and  in  particular 
to  prove  that  it  was  he  who  suggested  the  united 
German  Empire.  It  seems  that  the  diaries  were 
found  locked  up  at  the  Villa  Zirio,  and  it  was 
stated  that  they  were  given,  or  at  least  shown,  by 
the  Emperor  Frederick  to  Baron  von  Roggenbach, 
the  Baden  statesman. 

Bismarck  at  first  affected  to  believe,  and  appar- 
ently he  succeeded  in  persuading  the  Emperor  Wil- 
liam, that  the  published  extracts  were  forgeries. 
The  offending  number  of  the  review  was  accord- 
ingly suppressed,  and  Geffcken  was  arrested  on 
September  29  on  a  charge  of  high  treason.     He 


EARLY  WIDOWHOOD  317 

was  acquitted  of  criminal  intention  in  the  follow- 
ing January,  and  in  the  interval  the  Cologne 
Gazette  charged  Sir  Robert  Morier,  then  British 
Ambassador  in  St.  Petersburg,  with  having  given 
information  to  Marshal  Bazaine  of  the  movements 
of  the  Prussian  forces  in  1870.  Fortunately 
Morier  was  able  to  produce  convincing  documen- 
tary evidence  of  his  innocence,  but  it  was  generally 
felt  that  this  monstrous  attack  on  the  Empress 
Frederick's  old  friend  was  really  directed  against 
the  Empress  herself. 

The  Empress  behaved  with  the  greatest  dignity 
and  self-restraint  during  this  time  of  bitter  perse- 
cution, and  in  the  many  diaries  and  memoirs  of  the 
period  we  can  find  but  one  reference  which  reveals 
how  she  really  felt.  This  reference  is  in  Sir  Hor- 
ace Rumbold's  Recollections.  He  tells  of  the 
deep  feeling  with  which  the  Empress  spoke  of  the 
suffering  she  had  passed  through  and  the  wrongs 
she  had  endured.  "She  spoke  of  them  with  an  ex- 
ceeding bitterness,  emphasising  what  she  said  with 
clenched  hands  and  betraying  an  emotion  which 
suddenly  gained  me,  and  more  than  explained  the 
Queen's  well-known  reference  to  her  as  her  'dear 
persecuted  daughter.'  " 

It  may  be  asked  why  the  young  Emperor  Wil- 
liam did  not  interv^ene  to  protect  his  mother  from 
the  hostility  of  his  Chancellor.  Unfortunately 
there  is  no  doubt  that  at  this  time  there  was  an 
estrangement   between   mother   and    son.     Years 


318      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

before,  Bismarck  had  taken  precautions  to  prevent 
the  heir  presumptive  to  the  throne  from  imbibing 
the  hberal  principles  of  both  his  parents,  and  had 
caused  him  to  spend  the  impressionable  years  of 
early  manhood  entirely  under  the  influence  of  his 
grandfather,  the  old  Emperor,  and  the  military 
glories  of  the  new  Empire.  Bismarck  no  doubt 
thought  that  he  had  obtained  a  complete  ascend- 
ancy over  his  new  master.  It  was  significant  that 
whereas  on  his  accession  the  Emperor  Frederick 
had  addressed  his  first  message  to  the  nation  at 
large  through  the  Chancellor,  the  Emperor  Wil- 
liam addressed  his  first  messages  to  the  Army  and 
Navy,  the  civilians  having  to  wait  a  day  or  two 
for  their  recognition.  Another  indication  of  the 
character  of  the  new  regime  was  afforded  by  the 
Emperor  William's  reversal  of  his  father's  decision 
to  name  the  New  Palace,  Friedrichskron. 

These  and  other  incidents  show  how  the  Em- 
peror began  his  reign  under  the  domination  of  Bis- 
marck, but  it  is  pleasant  to  record  that  the  estrange- 
ment from  his  mother,  which  the  old  Chancellor 
undoubtedly  fostered,  was  not  of  long  duration. 

It  is  curious  how  seldom,  among  the  many 
studies,  criticisms,  and  estimates  of  the  Emperor 
William  II,  we  find  his  extraordinary  versatility 
attributed  to  the  influence  of  heredity;  and  yet 
it  is  easy  to  see  now  that  the  Empress  Frederick 
ought  to  have  enjoyed  much  greater  popularity  in 
Germany  than  she  did  as  a  matter  of  fact  enjoy 


EARLY  WIDOWHOOD  319 

at  any  time,  if  only  because  she  was  the  mother  of 
such  a  son. 

We  can  best  perhaps  realise  the  remarkable 
quahties  which  the  Empress  brought  into  the  House 
of  Hohenzollern  by  comparing  her  eldest  son  with 
his  predecessors  on  the  throne.  King  Frederick 
William  IV  had  a  mind  which  appeared  incapable 
of  appreciating  matters  of  greater  importance  than 
the  etiquette  of  Courts  and  the  prescriptions  of 
mediaeval  heraldry.  As  we  know,  during  the  last 
years  of  his  life  his  intellect  was  clouded  much  in 
the  same  way  as  was  that  of  King  George  III  of 
England.  King  Frederick's  brother  and  succes- 
sor, the  old  Emperor  William,  possessed  remarka- 
ble strength  of  character  combined  with  little 
capacity  or  intellect,  as  Bismarck  very  frankly  ex- 
plained, both  to  his  creature,  Busch,  and  in  other 
recorded  expressions  of  opinion.  As  for  the  Em- 
peror William's  father,  the  ill-fated  Frederick,  it 
was  no  doubt  from  him  that  the  son  derived  that 
dash  of  romantic  idealism  characteristic  of  both 
monarchs. 

But  undoubtedly  William  II  was  always  much 
more  the  son  of  his  mother  than  of  his  father, 
which  seems,  indeed,  to  be  the  rule  in  families  of 
less  exalted  rank.  We  have  seen  how  the  Empress 
really  received  from  her  father  the  training  of  a 
man,  and,  it  may  be  added,  of  an  extremely  versa- 
tile man.  If  fate  had  compelled  her  eldest  son 
to  earn  his  own  living  in  a  private  station,  it  is 


320      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

extraordinary  to  think  of  the  number  of  professions 
in  any  one  of  which  he  could  have  attained  a  com- 
petence, if  not  indeed  high  distinction.  From  his 
mother,  rather  than  from  his  father,  he  inherited 
a  great  appetite  for  work  and  an  extraordinary 
aptitude  for  detail;  and  he  showed  himself  at  dif- 
ferent times  to  have  had  in  him  the  making,  not 
only  of  a  soldier  and  a  sailor,  but  of  a  musician,  a 
poet,  an  artist,  a  preacher,  and  an  orator. 

Compare  this  with  his  grandfather,  the  old  Em- 
peror, who,  if  he  had  not  been  born  in  the  purple, 
could  only  have  been  a  soldier,  and  not,  it  must  be 
added,  one  who  could  have  held  very  high  com- 
mands. Compare  him  again  with  his  father;  the 
Emperor  Frederick,  if  he  had  not  been  bom  in 
the  purple,  though  he  certainly  showed  greater  mili- 
tary capacity  than  the  old  Emperor,  nevertheless 
would  probably  not  have  been  happy  or  successful 
in  any  private  station  other  than  that  of  a  great 
moral  teacher. 

The  Emperor  William's  affinity  to  his  mother 
in  character,  temperament,  and  accomphshments 
becomes  the  more  striking  the  more  it  is  investi- 
gated. He  shared  with  her  a  certain  impulsive- 
ness, a  deficiency  in  what  is  ordinarily  called  tact, 
which  really  amounts  to  a  constitutional  inabiUty 
to  appreciate  the  effect  which  a  particular  word  or 
action  will  necessarily  have  on  other  people.  This, 
which  seems  a  negative  quality,  is  really  a  positive 
one,  interwoven  with  a  high  courage  and  a  con- 


EARLY  WIDOWHOOD  321 

tempt  for  the  mean  little  dictates  of  conventional 
prudence,  which  have  always  commanded  the  ad- 
miration of  generous  minds.  This  remarkable 
similarity  between  mother  and  son  assuredly  fur- 
nishes the  key  to  the  somewhat  complex  question  of 
their  relationships  at  different  periods.  They 
were  in  fact  too  much  alike  for  their  relations  to  be 
always  harmonious. 

The  widowed  Empress  did  not  owe  all  her  un- 
happiness  to  Bismarck  alone.  In  1889  Gustav 
Freytag  published  a  volume  of  Reminiscences  of 
the  Emperor  Frederick  which  attracted  a  great 
amount  of  attention,  more  perhaps  than  they  in- 
trinsically deserved.  But  Freytag's  position 
among  German  writers  as  novelist,  poet,  drama- 
tist, and  historian,  was  so  great  that  everything  he 
wrote  had  its  importance,  and  in  addition  to  that 
it  was  known  that  he  had  at  one  time  been  admitted 
to  the  confidence  of  the  then  Crown  Prince,  whose 
political  Liberalism  he  appeared  to  share. 

Freytag  was  a  Silesian  by  birth,  and  this  no 
doubt  did  him  no  harm  with  the  Emperor  Fred- 
erick, who  was  warmly  attached  to  Silesia,  and  de- 
lighted in  the  graphic  pictures  of  life  in  that 
province  wliich  Freytag  drew  in  his  novels.  The 
Empress  made  Fre5i;ag's  acquaintance  in  the  early 
years  of  her  married  life — indeed,  the  first  German 
novel  which  she  read  with  her  husband  was  Frey- 
tag's Soil  und  Hahen.  The  novelist  had  been  pre- 
sented to  the  Prince  Consort  by  his  patron,  Duke 


322      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Ernest  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,  and  it  was  natural 
in  all  the  circumstances  that  the  Crown  Princess 
and  her  husband  should  have  shown  the  great  writer 
marked  signs  of  favour. 

It  is  all  the  more  extraordinary,  therefore,  that 
in  his  Reminiscences  Freytag  should  have  drawn 
such  a  picture  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  as  must 
have  deeply  distressed  his  then  newly-made  widow. 
It  was  a  picture  which  she  herself  knew  to  be  in- 
accurate, and  which  indeed  could  only  gratify  the 
personal  hostility  of  Bismarck  and  his  adherents. 
There  is  no  need  to  linger  long  over  this  picture, 
but  it  demands  some  notice  because  it,  so  to  speak, 
gathers  together  in  a  convenient  form  the  principal 
features  of  what  may  be  called  the  Bismarckian 
view  of  both  the  Empress  and  her  husband. 

It  has  been  said  that  Freytag  apparently  shared 
the  Crown  Prince's  Liberalism,  but  he  was  also 
steeped  in  Prussian  particularism,  and  it  was  this 
that  brought  him  to  his  almost  blind  admiration 
of  Bismarck,  and  rendered  him  incapable  of  ap- 
preciating the  political  conceptions  of  the  Em- 
peror Frederick.  Freytag,  indeed,  was  a  bad 
judge  of  character,  the  presentation  of  which  was 
his  weak  point  as  a  novelist. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  fact  that 
the  Crown  Prince  invited  Freytag  to  accompany 
him  with  the  Third  Army  in  the  Franco-German 
War,  and  the  Reminiscences  terminate  soon  after 
the  battle  of  Sedan.     After  1870  the  Crown  Prince 


EARLY  WIDOWHOOD  323 

hardly  ever  saw  Freytag,  and  never  with  any  real 
intimacy;  yet  on  this  slender  foundation  of  knowl- 
edge the  novelist  revived,  under  the  specious  cloak 
of  affection,  some  of  the  worst  charges  of  the  Rep- 
tile Press,  and  of  the  insulting  commentary  which 
Bismarck  published  on  the  late  Emperor's  diary. 

The  principal  charge  for  our  purposes  here  is  that 
the  Crown  Prince  was  subjected  to  foreign  influ- 
ence, and  was  entirely  dominated  by  his  wife.  In 
effect  Freytag  suggests  that  through  the  Crown 
Princess,  Princess  Alice,  and  other  members  of 
the  English  Royal  family,  important  secrets  of 
German  military  movements  reached  the  French 
commanders.  "Both  the  Empress  Frederick  and 
Princess  Alice,"  he  says,  "wrote  to  their  august 
mother  and  the  family  in  London,  and  what 
crossed  the  North  Sea  could  be  sent  to  France 
again  in  letters  a  few  hours  later.  It  is  therefore 
not  unnatural  that  the  French  learned  by  way  of 
England  a  variety  of  news  about  our  army  which 
with  greater  propriety  would  have  remained  con- 
cealed." 

Such  a  charge  is  incapable  of  complete  disproof, 
but  at  any  rate  it  is  obvious  that  Freytag  could 
know  nothing  of  the  contents,  either  of  the  Crown 
Prince's  letters  to  his  wife,  who  was  at  that  time 
working  day  and  night  in  the  German  hospitals,  or 
of  the  letters  of  the  Crown  Princess  and  her  sister 
to  their  relations  in  England.  Yet  he  describes 
Princess  Alice  as  "at  heart  during  the  whole  of 


324      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  war  a  brave  German  woman,"  which  is  a  plain 
insinuation  that  the  Crown  Princess  had  not  her 
whole  heart  in  the  success  of  the  German  arms. 
The  whole  plan  of  denigrement  is  the  more  subtle, 
for  Freytag  professes  the  most  ardent  admiration 
for  the  ability  of  the  Crown  Princess,  her  rich 
natural  gifts,  and  her  keen  soaring  intellect.  At 
the  same  time  he  says : 

"The  Crown  Prince's  love  for  her  was  the  high- 
est and  holiest  passion  of  his  life,  and  filled  his 
whole  existence;  she  was  the  lady  of  his  youth,  the 
confidante  of  all  his  thoughts,  his  trusted  counsel- 
lor whenever  she  was  so  inclined.  Arrangements 
of  the  garden,  decorations  of  the  house,  education 
of  the  children,  judgments  of  men  and  things,  were 
in  every  respect  regulated  by  him  in  accordance 
with  her  thoughts  and  wishes.  It  is  perfectly  in- 
telligible that  so  complete  an  ascendancy  of  the  wife 
over  the  husband,  who  was  destined  to  be  the  fu- 
ture ruler  of  Prussia,  threatened  to  occasion  diffi- 
culties and  conflicts,  which,  perhaps,  would  be 
greater  for  the  woman  than  the  man — greater 
for  the  wife  who  led  and  inspired  the  husband 
whose  guidance  she  ought  to  have  accepted." 

Here  again  we  see  the  limitations  of  Freytag*s 
undoubtedly  great  intellect,  as  well  as  his  instinc- 
tive German  middle-class  conception  of  woman's 
sphere.  To  the  North- German  the  idea  of  woman 
as  a  comrade,  as  being  even  approximately  on  a 
level  with  her  husband,  was  then,  and  is  still  to  a 


EARLY  WIDOWHOOD  325 

great  extent,  inconceivable.  In  that  view  of 
matrimony  the  wife  is  really  a  chattel,  or  at  best 
a  respected  housekeeper. 

It  may  be  asked,  how  could  Freytag  have  sup- 
posed that  the  Emperor  Frederick  would  have  sub- 
mitted to  such  domination  on  the  part  of  his  wife? 
The  answer  is  that  Freytag's  conception  of  the 
emperor's  character  was  hopelessly  erroneous.  He 
is  obliged  to  confirm  his  title  to  be  considered  the 
originator  of  the  idea  of  a  German  Empire,  but  he 
attributes  it  to  a  mere  love  of  pomp  and  ceremony, 
a  passion  for  Court  millinery.  The  plain  truth  is 
that  few  monarchs  have  been  simpler  in  their  per- 
sonal tastes  than  the  Emperor  Frederick;  the  eti- 
quette, the  monotony,  and  the  restraint  of  Court 
life  bored  him,  and  he  was  never  so  happy  as  when 
he  could  escape  to  the  congenial  society  of  savants, 
artists,  and  writers.  It  is  certainly  true  that  his 
imaginative  and  poetical  gifts  induced  him  to  try 
to  infuse  some  elements  of  dignity  and  meaning 
into  the  routine  of  Court  ceremonial,  but  that  he 
cared  for  such  ceremonial  in  itself,  or  attached  to 
it  any  greater  value  than  that  of  symbolism,  is 
frankly  absurd. 

Freytag  even  accuses  the  Crown  Prince  of  having 
been  ready  to  risk  civil  war  in  order  that  he  might 
secure  the  creation  of  the  Imperial  dignity  after 
the  Franco-German  War.  This  is  based  on  a  mis- 
apprehension of  the  Prince's  discussions  with  Bis- 
marck at  Versailles.     The  Crown  Prince  believed 


326      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

that  force  would  be  unnecessary,  and  that  the  South 
German  States  would  accept  the  Constitution  pro- 
claimed by  the  majority  of  the  Princes  assembled 
at  Versailles.  It  is  possible  that  he  would  have 
advocated  compulsion  if  Bavaria  and  Wiirtemberg 
had  thrown  themselves  into  the  arms  of  Austria, 
but  he  well  knew  that  that  contingency  was  in  the 
last  degree  improbable. 

Early  in  1889  the  Empress  Frederick  suffered 
another  bereavement  which,  though  not  of  course 
to  be  compared  with  many  which  she  had  endured, 
nevertheless  added  perceptibly  to  her  state  of 
melancholy  and  depression.  This  was  the  death 
of  the  venerable  Empress  Augusta,  which  broke  a 
much  valued  link  with  the  happy  past.  From 
those  days  in  the  early  fifties  when  that  highly- 
bred  and  highly-cultivated  Princess  had  become 
*'Aunt  Prussia"  to  the  Roj^al  children  at  Windsor, 
and  even  more  after  the  marriage  of  the  Princess 
Royal,  she  had  remained  a  loyal  and  most  kindly 
and  affectionate  friend  to  her  daughter-in-law. 
The  two  Roj^al  ladies  looked  upon  life  from  widely 
different  angles,  and  the  elder  must  often  have  dis- 
approved of  the  way  in  which  the  younger  inter- 
preted her  duty.  But  the  Empress  Augusta  never 
faltered  in  her  admiration  and  affection  for  one 
who  was  so  entirely  unlike  herself,  and  in  these 
latter  days  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  had 
brought  them,  if  possible,  even  more  closely  to- 
gether. 


EARLY  WIDOWHOOD  327 

The  dramatic  fall  of  Bismarck — the  "Dropping 
the  Pilot"  of  Sir  John  Tenniel's  memorable  car- 
toon in  Punch — occurred  in  March,  1890.  It  could 
hardly  have  been  regretted  by  the  Empress  Fred- 
erick, but  she  was  far  too  magnanimous,  and  we 
may  add  too  well  aware  of  Bismarck's  incompara- 
ble services  to  the  Empire,  to  regard  the  event  as 
in  any  sense  a  personal  triumph  for  herself. 

What  is  truly  astonishing,  in  view  of  all  that 
had  passed,  is  that  the  fallen  Minister  should  have 
turned  to  her  for  sympathy,  and  should  even,  ac- 
cording to  some  authorities,  have  begged  her  to 
exert  on  his  behalf  her  now  growing  influence  with 
her  son.  It  is  said  that  she  then  reminded  him  that 
his  past  treatment  of  her  had  deprived  her  of  any 
power  of  helping  him  now,  but  such  an  answer  does 
not  accord  with  what  we  know  of  the  Empress's 
whole  character.  She  was  surely  incapable  at  such 
a  moment  of  adding  anything  to  the  humiliation 
of  her  old  enemy.  Besides,  Professor  Nippold 
speaks  of  Bismarck's  having  himself  written: 
"Her  influence  over  her  husband  was  very  great 
at  any  time,  and  became  greater  with  the  years,  to 
culminate  at  the  time  when  he  was  Emperor.  But 
also  in  her  was  the  conviction  that  my  position  close 
to  the  throne  was  in  the  interest  of  the  dynasty." 

There  are,  indeed,  different  versions  of  what  took 
place  in  the  now  famous  interview  between  Bis- 
marck and  the  Empress  Frederick.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  she  regarded  the  Minister's  dismissal 


328      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

from  office  as  an  imprudent  and  even  dangerous 
step.  However  that  may  be,  Prince  Hohenlohe 
declares  that  Bismarck  did  not  entreat  the  Empress 
to  intercede  for  him  with  the  Emperor;  he  merely 
said,  when  the  Empress  asked  if  she  could  do  any- 
thing for  him,  "I  ask  only  for  sympathy."  But  he 
certainly  did  ask  to  be  received  by  her  in  audience, 
although  he  must  have  vividly  remembered  the  in- 
solent message  which  he  had  sent  her  immediately 
after  the  Emperor  Frederick's  death,  when  she  had 
requested  him  to  come  to  her. 

A  year  later,  at  Homburg,  Prince  Hohenlohe 
and  the  Empress  Frederick  had  a  long  conversa- 
tion over  the  Bismarck  aifair.  She  said  she  was 
not  at  all  surprised  at  his  dismissal,  that  "Bis- 
marck was  of  a  combative  nature  and  would  never 
cease  to  fight.  He  could  do  nothing  else."  She 
talked  of  previous  incidents,  of  Bismarck's  ground- 
less distrust  of  her,  and  of  the  Empress  Augusta, 
and  expressed  the  opinion  "that  we  had  only  to 
thank  the  old  Emperor's  quiet  gentleness  for  any 
success  of  Bismarck's.  He  was  a  very  dangerous 
opponent,  but  not  a  Republican.  He  was  too 
Prussian  for  that.  But  the  Brandenburg-Prus- 
sian noble  was  determined  to  rule,  though  it  were 
with  the  King." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  PLANNING  OF  FEIEDRICHSHOF: 
VISIT  TO  PARIS 

The  Empress's  relations  with  her  son  improved 
after  the  fall  of  Bismarck.  She  was  particularly 
touched  by  the  many  tributes  which  he  paid  to  his 
father's  memory,  and  she  now  felt  encouraged  to 
try  and  build  up  again  the  fragments  of  her  tragic- 
ally broken  hfe. 

The  Emperor  William  had  placed  at  his  mother's 
disposal  the  palace  in  Unter  den  Linden  in  Berlin 
where  the  Emperor  and  Empress  Frederick  lived 
while  they  were  Crown  Prince  and  Princess,  as 
well  as  the  Charlottenhof  at  Potsdam,  and  the 
Schloss  at  Homburg. 

Charlottenhof  is  in  the  Royal  grounds  at  Pots- 
dam, at  some  distance  from  the  New  Palace.  It 
was  built  by  Frederick  William  IV  in  1826,  in  imi- 
tation of  a  Pompeian  villa,  and  in  the  grounds  are 
fountains,  statues,  and  bronzes  which  were  brought 
from  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii. 

As  to  Homburg,  the  Empress  had  always  been 
very  fond  of  the  place;  she  had  often  spent  part 
of  the  summer  at  the  old  Schloss,  and  she  valued  its 
associations  with  the  daughter  of  another  British 
Sovereign,  for  the  delightful  gardens  to  which 
Thackeray  refers  in  The  Four  Georges  were  laid 

3S9 


330      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

out  by  the  Landgravine  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
George  III. 

When  the  Empress  Frederick  decided  to  build 
a  house  after  her  own  heart,  it  was  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Homburg  that  her  thoughts  naturally 
turned.  Perhaps  another  reason  which  governed 
the  choice  of  that  neighbourhood  was  the  fact  that 
the  widowed  Empress's  beloved  brother.  King  Ed- 
ward, was  so  fond  of  the  place,  and  for  many  years 
went  there  each  year. 

Some  account  of  Friedrichshof  will  be  not  only 
interesting  but  really  necessary  for  our  purpose, 
for  this  noble  castle  and  estate  at  Cronberg  in  the 
Taunus  mountains  were  so  entirely  the  creation  of 
the  Empress's  own  mind  and  taste  that  they  throw 
a  strong  light  on  her  personaHty  and  character. 

Her  Majesty  was  able  to  build  Friedrichshof 
out  of  the  large  sum,  estimated  at  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  million,  which  she  had  inherited  from  an  inti- 
mate friend,  the  Duchess  of  Galliera,  within  a  few 
months  of  the  Emperor's  death. 

In  the  days  when  as  Crown  Princess  she  was 
living  at  the  old  castle  at  Homburg,  the  Empress 
had  once  visited  Cronberg. 

After  the  tragic  events  of  1888  her  Majesty 
longed  to  have  a  place  of  her  own  where  she  could 
occupy  her  mind  in  building  and  improving.  The 
Empress  remembered  the  visit  to  Cronberg,  and 
as  the  inquiries  she  caused  to  be  made  as  to  its 
climate,  soil,  and  so  on,  proved  satisfactory,  she 


PLANNING  OF  FRIEDRICHSHOF    331 

decided  on  the  purchase  without  delay.  The 
owner  was  one  Dr.  Steibel,  son-in-law  of  Mr. 
Reiss,  a  Manchester  manufacturer  who  built  the 
short  line  of  railway  connecting  Frankfort  with 
Cronberg.  The  property  consisted  of  a  villa  and 
a  few  acres,  but,  as  some  neighbouring  properties 
were  bought  up,  the  estate  was  enlarged  to  some 
250  acres.  Fortunately  the  pine  forests  surround- 
ing the  estate  were  communal  property. 

The  Empress  resolved  that  Friedrichshof  should 
be  primarily  a  memorial  to  her  husband,  a  sort  of 
model  domus  regalis,  as  was  shown  by  the  pathetic 
inscription  on  the  porch,  "Friderici  Memoriae." 

The  first  thing  to  do  was  to  make  roads,  and 
this,  with  draining,  building,  and  planting,  occu- 
pied fully  four  years,  from  1889  to  1893. 

The  villa  of  Dr.  Steibel  was  practically  demol- 
ished, and  in  its  place  rose  a  stately  mansion  in  the 
style  of  the  early  sixteenth  century.  There  are 
many  examples  of  this  style,  which  marks  the 
period  of  transition  from  Gothic  to  Renaissance, 
to  be  found  along  the  Rhine  and  throughout  Hesse 
and  Nassau.  The  schloss  itself  and  the  stables, 
which  are  in  the  style  of  a  Rhenish  or  Hessian 
farmhouse,  as  well  as  the  out-buildings,  were  all 
designed  by  Herr  Ihne,  a  famous  Berlin  architect ; 
but  the  Empress  herself  personally  superintended 
the  carrying  out  of  all  his  plans. 

The  Empress's  first  idea  was  to  call  the  place 
Friedrichsruh,  but  it  was  pointed  out  that  name 


332      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

might  cause  confusion  with  Prince  Bismarck's 
estate  in  the  north  of  Prussia.  The  name  Fried- 
richshof  was  then  suggested  by  Princess  Victoria, 
and  finaEy  adopted. 

The  improved  relations  between  the  Emperor 
William  and  his  mother  were  exhibited  early  in 
1891.  He  was  desirous  of  testing  the  real  feel- 
ing of  the  Paris  populace  towards  Germany,  and 
so  with  his  sanction,  possibly  even  at  his  direct 
request,  the  Empress  Frederick  went  to  Paris. 

If  her  visit  had  been  a  success,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  Emperor  would  have  next  proposed  to 
visit  Paris  himself,  as  he  had  long  been  keenly 
desirous  of  doing.  But  the  memories  of  the 
Franco-Prussian  War  were  more  lasting  than  the 
Emperor  imagined,  and  his  mother's  mission,  so 
far  as  it  was  intended  to  improve  Franco-German 
relations,  was  a  failure. 

It  was  on  February  19,  1891,  that  the  Empress 
Frederick  arrived  in  Paris.  Her  visit,  though  not 
technically  of  an  official  character,  could  not  be 
called  incognito^  as  she  and  her  daughter,  Princess 
Margaret,  attended  by  a  considerable  suite,  stayed 
at  the  German  Embassy. 

The  general  surprise  in  Paris  was  so  marked 
that  a  communique  was  issued  to  the  French  Press. 
In  this  it  was  pointed  out  that  the  Empress,  hav- 
ing consented  to  accept  the  position  of  patroness 
of  an  art  exhibition  about  to  be  opened  in  Berlin, 
had  asked  some  notable  French  artists  to  contribute 


PLANNING  OF  FRIEDRICHSHOF     333 

paintings.  A  number  of  these,  notably  M.  Bou- 
guereau  and  M.  Detaille,  had  accepted,  and  she 
had  felt  bound  to  come  to  Paris  and  thank  them 
personally. 

It  was  erroneously  said,  not  only  in  the  French 
but  also  in  the  German  papers,  that  this  was  the 
first  visit  the  Empress  had  paid  to  Paris  since  the 
Franco-Prussian  War.  This  was  not  the  case. 
She  had  been  there  three  times,  but  on  the  previous 
occasions  she  had  stayed  at  the  Hotel  Bristol,  and 
had  travelled  in  real  incognito. 

The  first  three  or  four  days  of  her  stay,  what- 
ever the  public  thought  of  the  reason  assigned  for 
it,  passed  oiF  well.  The  Empress  visited  a  con- 
siderable number  of  studios  and  picture  galleries, 
and  she  also  made  large  purchases  in  some  of  the 
curiosity-shops  for  which  Paris  has  always  been 
famous.  The  German  Ambassador  gave  a  dinner 
party  each  evening  in  honour  of  his  august  guest, 
and  many  members  of  the  Diplomatic  Corps,  not- 
ably Lord  and  Lady  Lytton,  were  asked  to  meet 
her. 

Meanwhile,  the  German  Press,  which  had  been 
kept  beforehand  completely  in  the  dark  as  to  the 
visit,  was  now  devoting  to  it  a  great  deal  of  not 
very  kindly  attention.  It  was  hinted  that  the 
young  Emperor  wished  to  effect  a  thorough  recon- 
ciliation with  France,  and  with  this  idea  in  view 
had  asked  his  mother  to  tdter  le  terrain.  These 
hints  aroused  the  susceptibilities  of  the  Boulangist 


334      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

party.  Much  ill-feeling  had  been  awakened  by 
the  arbitrary  suppression  of  the  Ligue  des  Patri- 
otes,  and  long  before  the  Empress's  visit  a  huge 
protest  meeting  had  been  arranged.  The  meeting 
was  held,  and  inflammatory  speeches  were  delivered 
in  favour  of  "la  Revanche,"  but  no  insult  of  any 
sort  was  levelled  at  the  Imperial  visitor.  In  fact 
the  Empress  later  testified  to  the  perfect  courtesy 
which  she  had  received  from  every  class  of  French- 
man and  Frenchwoman. 

It  suddenly  became  known  that  twice — once 
alone  with  the  German  ambassador,  and  then,  on 
another  day,  attended  by  a  large  suite — the  Em- 
press had  driven  out  from  Paris  to  view  the  ruins 
of  the  Palace  of  Saint  Cloud,  believed  by  the 
French  to  have  been  wantonly  destroyed  by  the 
Prussians  in  1870.  The  Empress  also  visited  Ver- 
sailles and  the  neighbouring  battlefields. 

The  news  of  these  excursions  aroused  very  bitter 
feelings  among  many  otherwise  sober  and  sensible 
Parisians,  to  whom  the  memories  of  I'Annee  Ter- 
rible, and  especially  of  the  Prussian  occupation  of 
Versailles,  were  still  painfully  vivid.  Their  in- 
dignation was  intensified  when  it  became  known 
that  some  ill-advised  Government  oflScial  had  di- 
rected that  a  laurel  wreath  placed  at  the  foot  of 
the  monument  to  Henri  Regnault,  the  greatest 
French  painter  of  his  generation,  who  was  killed  at 
Buzenval,  in  the  last  desperate  sortie  from  Paris, 


PLANNING  OF  FRIEDRICHSHOF    335 

should  be  removed  on  the  occasion  of  the  visit  of 
the  Empress  to  the  Ministry  of  Fine  Arts. 

This  was  indeed  pouring  oil  on  the  fire !  It  was 
rumoured  that  this  special  act  of  tactless  stupidity 
would  be  the  subject  of  an  interpellation  in  the 
Chamber.  The  depth  of  feeling  aroused  is  illus- 
trated by  one  fact,  which  did  not,  however,  find  its 
way  into  the  Press.  All  those  painters  who  had 
accepted  the  Empress's  invitation  to  exhibit  at  Ber- 
lin received  each  morning,  till  their  acceptances 
were  withdrawn,  the  following  macabre  visiting- 
card: 

"HENRI  REGNAULT, 
"69®  battalion  de  marche,  4®  campagnie, 

"BUZENVAL." 

Meanwhile,  the  less  responsible  section  of  the 
Paris  Press  had  also  added  fuel  to  the  flame  by 
such  headings  as  "Insultes  aux  Fran9ais" — "Visites 
Imperiales  a  Saint  Cloud  et  a  Versailles,"  &;c. 

The  French  Government  reluctantly  informed 
the  German  Ambassador  that  it  would  be  advisable 
that  the  Empress,  who  had  already  prolonged  her 
visit  for  several  days  longer  than  had  at  first  been 
arranged,  should  leave  Paris.  On  February  26 
the  following  note  was  sent  to  the  Press:  "The 
Empress  Frederick  will  leave  Paris  to-morrow 
morning  for  London  at  11:30  via  Calais."  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  Imperial  party  left  for  London 


336      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  next  day  by  the  ten  o'clock  express  via  Bou- 
logne. 

But  the  "incident"  was  by  no  means  over.  The 
French  artists  who  had  accepted  the  invitation  to 
exhibit  their  works  at  Berlin  all  withdrew  their  ac- 
ceptances, and  as  a  result  the  German  Press  burst 
forth  into  most  violent  and  coarse  abuse  of  France 
and  of  the  French.  Indeed,  it  looked  at  one  mo- 
ment as  if  nothing  could  prevent  the  two  nations 
from  rushing  at  each  other's  throats. 

The  Empress  was  greatly  distressed,  and  it  is 
on  record  that  she  wrote  to  her  son  a  long  private 
letter,  pointing  out  that  she  had  been  personally 
very  well  received,  and  indeed  most  courteously 
treated,  during  her  stay  in  Paris. 

It  is  clear  that  in  France  all  parties,  and  even 
those  members  of  the  Diplomatic  Corps  who  were 
personally  attached  to  the  Empress,  regretted,  if 
they  did  not  blame,  her  imprudence,  for  what  had 
finally  hghted  the  tinder  was  the  expedition  to 
Versailles.  With  all  her  love  of  French  Art  and 
her  sympathy  with  the  French  "intellectuals" — 
her  great  admiration  for  Renan  was  well  known — 
the  Empress  Frederick  had  always  taken  on  the 
whole  what  may  be  called  the  German  view  of 
the  French  character — that  is,  she  regarded  the 
French  as  gay,  frivolous,  and  lacking  in  ballast 
and  in  the  deeper  qualities  of  humanity.  If  they 
had  been  what  their  Imperial  guest  believed  them 
to  be,  the  nation  as  a  whole  would  have  shrugged 


PLANNING  OF  FRIEDRICHSHOF     33T 

its  shoulders  and  diplomatically  remained  silent, 
however  froissee  it  might  have  been  at  such  lack 
of  tact  on  the  part  of  a  great  personage. 

Some  months  later  the  Empress  spoke  of  the 
matter  to  English  friends  with  deep  regret,  but 
still  with  a  curious  lack  of  understanding.  She 
even  mentioned  the  subject  to  the  then  French 
Ambassador  in  London,  M.  Waddington,  eagerly- 
telling  him  that  she  had  experienced  nothing  but 
respect  and  even  sympathy  during  the  first  part 
of  her  visit,  and  expressing  her  astonishment  and 
distress  at  the  feeling  her  visit  to  Versailles  and  the 
battlefields  round  Paris  had  provoked.  She  had 
brought  herself  by  then  to  share  Queen  Victoria's 
view,  namely,  that  the  whole  thing  had  been  a  more 
or  less  histrionic  demonstration  against  the  French 
Government. 

It  showed,  however,  the  Empress's  largeness  of 
mind  that  during  this  same  visit  to  England  which 
followed  her  hasty  departure  from  France  she 
spoke  with  the  warmest  admiration  of  the  verse  of 
Paul  Deroulede,  the  great  chauvinist  leader  of  the 
Revanche  party. 

This  was  the  last  intervention  of  the  Empress 
Frederick  in  public  affairs. 

In  the  following  year  the  Empress  had  the  grief 
of  losing  a  very  old  friend  in  the  person  of  Lord 
Arthur  Russell.  Of  these  three  gifted  brothers, 
who  were  at  once  so  alike  and  so  different,  she  said 
pathetically:    "The  chief  charm  of  the  two  others 


338      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

to  me  used  to  be  that  they  were  Lord  Odo's 
brothers,  until  I  came  to  know  them  well  and  to 
appreciate  each  other  for  his  own  sake." 

There  burst  forth,  late  in  the  year  1892,  a  most 
extraordinary  scandal,  in  which  the  Empress  Fred- 
erick, although  the  affair  was  almost  ostentatiously 
unconnected  with  her,  could  not  but  be  deeply  in- 
terested. 

Various  members  of  the  Imperial  family,  as 
well  as  members  of  their  Households,  began  to  be 
assailed  with  scurrilous  anonymous  letters,  which 
not  only  contained  shrewd  and  well-aimed  abuse 
of  each  individual,  but  which  also  revealed  all  sorts 
of  shameful  secrets  to  those  from  whom  they  had 
been  sedulously  hidden.  Long-buried  family 
skeletons  were  dragged  out  into  the  light  of  day, 
and  no  one  was  spared.  Indeed,  the  greatest  suf- 
ferers were  those  most  closely  clustered  round 
about  the  throne.  There  was,  however,  one  ex- 
ception. The  widowed  Empress  was  neither  at- 
tacked nor  even  mentioned,  and  the  attempt  was 
evidently  made,  by  the  writer  or  writers  of  these 
extraordinary  communications,  to  respect,  as  far 
as  was  possible,  the  feelings  and  prejudices  of  the 
Emperor's  mother. 

Nothing  was  left  undone  to  discover  the  per- 
petrators of  this  most  evil  and  incomprehensible 
practical  joke,  if  practical  joke  it  was.  At  first  it 
was  supposed  that  the  letters  emanated  from  two 
people,  presumed  to  be  husband  and  wife,  but  soon 


PLANNING  OF  FRIEDRICHSHOF    339 

it  became  clear  to  thoughtful  investigators,  and 
these  comprised  all  the  more  intelligent  members 
of  the  Berlin  Court  world,  that  many  more  than 
two  or  even  three  persons  must  be  implicated  in 
the  conspiracy.  Indeed,  the  Empress  Frederick 
is  said  to  have  obsei'ved  to  a  friend  that  she  felt 
sure  that  many  of  those  who  had  at  first  been  vic- 
tims had  now  become  aggressors,  and  that  practi- 
cally everybody  was  taking  the  opportunity  of 
slinging  mud  by  way  of  revenge  for  real  or  fancied 
injuries. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  deal  with  the  long  and 
complicated  story  of  what  came  to  be  known  as 
the  anonymous  letter  scandal.  No  really  satisfac- 
tory conclusion  was  ever  attained.  Even  now 
German  opinion,  notably  among  those  chiefly  con- 
cerned with  the  exhaustive  investigation  which  took 
place  by  the  Emperor's  command,  is  hopelessly 
divided.  The  affair  ended  in  the  imprisonment — 
unjust  as  it  turned  out — of  a  high  Court  ofiicial,  in 
a  fatal  duel,  and  in  many  tragi-comedies. 


CHAPTER  XX 

LIFE   AT   FRIEDRICHSHOF 

For  many  interesting  details  and  anecdotes  in  the 
following  chapter,  we  are  indebted  to  a  valuable 
pamphlet  entitled,  "Reminiscences  of  Victoria 
Empress  Frederick,"  by  Professor  G.  A.  Leinh^as, 
her  honorary  librarian. 

During  the  building  of  Friedrichshof  the  Em- 
press took  up  her  residence  at  Homburg  and  drove 
over  every  day,  being  on  the  friendliest  terms,  not 
only  with  the  architect  and  builder,  but  also  with 
the  masons  and  the  other  workmen.  One  might 
say  that  she  watched  the  laying  of  nearly  every 
stone,  and  she  must  have  felt  sorry  when  the  work 
was  done.  Still,  there  was  plenty  of  occupation 
left  for  her,  when  the  building  was  finished,  in  su- 
perintending the  furnishing  and  other  arrange- 
ments. At  this  time  she  showed  not  the  least  sign 
of  failing  health  or  strength — indeed,  for  her  age 
she  was  remarkably  strong  and  even  robust. 

There  is  no  need  to  enlarge  upon  the  details  of 
the  drawing-rooms  and  other  apartments  of  the 
castle,  but  some  of  the  pictures  and  sculpture  were 
of  particular  interest.  For  instance,  there  were 
many  curious  portraits  of  members  of  the  House 
of  Hanover;  a  sketch,  by  Titian,  of  the  Emperor 

340 


LIFE  AT  FRIEDRICHSHOF       341 

Charles  V  of  Germany;  a  fine  portrait  of  Freder- 
ick the  Great;  and  many  busts  and  statues  of  the 
Empress's  relatives,  including  a  beautiful  marble 
bust  of  her  son,  little  Prince  Waldemar. 

The  fireplace  in  the  library  deserves  mention, 
being  of  Istrian  stone  in  the  Venetian  style — in- 
deed, all  through  the  castle  the  fireplaces  were  of 
remarkable  artistic  beauty.  Thus,  that  in  the 
great  dining-room  was  of  marble  supported  on  col- 
umns, and  surmounted  by  a  bust  of  the  Emperor 
Frederick. 

In  the  library  was  placed  a  replica  of  the  altar- 
piece  in  Cologne  Cathedral,  representing  the 
Adorations  of  the  Magi.  The  bookcases,  running 
nearly  all  round  the  room,  contained  the  Empress's 
collection  of  some  thirty  years.  One  case  was  de- 
voted entirely  to  books  dedicated  to  her,  and  the 
authors  of  many  of  them  had  been  admitted  to  her 
personal  friendship.  Another  section  contained 
all  the  books  written  on  the  subject  of  the  English 
Royal  family,  and  many  of  these  were  gifts  with 
inscriptions  in  Queen  Victoria's  large,  clear  hand- 
writing. 

Every  book  in  the  library  had  been  examined  by 
the  Empress,  and  many  of  them  had  been  read  and 
re-read.  This  was  notably  the  case  in  the  section 
devoted  to  political  economy,  a  subject  in  which 
she  was  intensely  interested.  Here  were  to  be 
seen  all  the  works  of  Jeremy  Bentham,  a  gift  from 
Dean  Stanley;  here,  too,  were  kept  the  Empress's 


342      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

marvellous  collection  of  autographs,  begun  when 
she  was  twelve  years  old,  and  containing  the  hand- 
writing, not  only  of  practically  all  the  Royal  per- 
sonages of  Europe,  but  also  of  statesmen,  artists, 
and  literary  and  scientific  men,  who  had  all  made 
their  mark  in  their  several  callings. 

The  Empress  was  indeed  a  collector.  Her  pos- 
sessions afforded  her  intense  pleasure;  to  use  her 
own  expressive  phrase:  "One  loves  one's  own 
things  so  much;  one  strokes  them  with  one's  eyes." 

There  was  arranged  in  glass  cases  her  collection 
of  coins  and  medals,  which  contained  some  particu- 
larly fine  and  rare  examples  from  the  Branden- 
burg-Prussian, English,  French,  and  Vatican 
mints.  One  case  was  devoted  to  a  numismatic 
portrait-gallery  of  her  own  relations. 

Her  collection  of  photographs,  each  properly 
titled,  took  up  300  portfolios.  When  going  over 
these  the  Empress  would  wax  enthusiastic  over  the 
views  of  the  places  where  she  had  herself  stayed, 
particularly  those  in  Italy,  such  as  Rapallo,  S.  Mar- 
gherita,  Baveno,  and  Portofino.  A  favourite  city 
of  hers  was  Triest,  of  which  she  seemed  to  know 
every  stock  and  stone. 

In  the  library,  too,  there  was  much  to  recall  the 
Emperor  Frederick.  Every  word  that  her  hus- 
band had  ever  written,  however  trivial,  the  Empress 
carefully  preserved.  All  his  marginal  notes  were 
treated  with  fixative,  and  one  of  her  chief  cares 
when  sending  any  books  to  institutions  was  to  make 


THE  LATE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 


LIFE  AT  FRIEDRICHSHOF       343 

sure  that  there  was  nothing  written  in  her  hus- 
band's own  hand  in  them. 

The  Empress  was  fond  of  collecting  curiosities, 
— ^bits  of  old  oak,  old  sculpture,  and  silver — and 
she  amused  herself  from  time  to  time  in  bargaining 
for  these  things  in  cottages  and  dealers'  shops. 
Nor  was  she  superior  to  the  familiar  pride  of  the 
collector  in  displaying  her  treasures  afterwards 
and  explaining  what  bargains  she  had  secured. 
The  Empress,  especially  as  a  young  woman,  did  not 
care  very  much  for  reading,  though  she  was  fond 
of  being  read  aloud  to,  as  are  most  Royal  person- 
ages. She  was,  however,  passionately  interested 
in  books,  and  it  is  recorded  that  in  her  tenth  year 
she  spent  all  her  pocket-money  on  them.  As  she 
grew  older,  she  read  more,  but  she  read  in  order  to 
instruct  herself  rather  than  for  pleasure.  As  a 
matter  of  course  she  always  read  all  those  books 
published  in  her  native  country  which  made  any 
stir,  whether  they  were  memoirs,  books  of  explora- 
tion, essays,  or  novels. 

At  half -past  ten  every  morning  (Sundays  ex- 
cepted) the  Empress  went  into  her  library  to  work. 
She  was  an  extremely  rapid  reader,  and  if  her  in- 
tellectual interests — science,  theology,  philosophy, 
history,  literature,  archasology,  art,  economics, 
hygiene — may  have  seemed  too  discursive  there  is 
abundant  evidence  to  acquit  her  of  dilettanteism. 
She  possessed  in  all  these  different  branches  a  solid 
foundation  of  knowledge,  which  enabled  her  to  un- 


344      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

derstand  and  appreciate  the  discussions  of  experts. 
Like  her  brother,  King  Edward,  she  possessed  in  a 
high  degree  the  truly  Royal  gift  of  assimilating 
knowledge  from  conversation,  and  she  had  been  so 
well  "grounded,"  so  to  speak,  that  whenever  she 
talked  with  a  speciaUst  in  any  subject  she  knew 
just  what  questions  to  ask. 

When  reading  a  book,  the  Empress  almost  al- 
ways made  notes  in  the  margin.  This  is  interest- 
ing as  showing  how  restlessly  alive,  and  in  a  sense 
over-stimulated,  her  brain  must  always  have  been. 
It  is  perhaps  a  fortunate  thing  during  her  long  ill- 
ness, for  even  then  she  never  felt  any  wish  to  be 
idle,  or  to  sit  alone  and  think  of  herself. 

In  the  grounds  of  Friedrichshof  her  Majesty 
was  able  to  indulge  to  the  full  her  love  of  garden- 
ing. Not  only  did  she  know  the  Latin  names  of 
every  plant  and  flower,  but  she  was  a  really  prac- 
tical gardener,  able  to  design  landscape  schemes. 

The  rosery,  for  instance,  was  her  creation. 
About  half  an  acre  in  extent,  it  resembled  the  rosery 
at  Birkhall,  on  the  Balmoral  estate.  It  sloped 
gently  upwards,  divided  into  numerous  little  ter- 
races, bearing  double  rows  of  half-standard  roses, 
and  it  was  bounded  partly  by  a  creeper-clad  wall, 
and  partly  by  trelliswork  over  which  roses  were 
trained.  In  the  flower-beds  of  her  ordinary  garden 
her  Majesty  showed  her  strong  preference  for  old- 
fashioned  English  flowers — indeed,  throughout  she 
evidently  aimed  at  reproducing  the  mingled  beauty 


LIFE  AT  FRIEDRICHSHOF       345 

and  repose  so  characteristic  of  English  gardens. 
All  kinds  of  trees,  too,  she  planted,  and  many  have 
the  added  interest  of  an  iron  tablet  recording  that 
it  was  planted  by  some  Royal  or  distinguished 
visitor. 

The  Empress  certainly  had  no  lack  of  occupation 
and  interest  at  Cronberg.  She  had  always  been 
fascinated  by  restoration  and  excavation  work,  and 
fortunately  Cronberg  possessed  both  an  old  castle 
and  an  old  church,  which  she  eagerly  set  herself  to 
preserve  for  future  generations.  At  the  old  Burg 
she  found  many  ancient  remains,  such  as  arrow- 
heads, keys,  &c.,  and,  most  important  of  all,  several 
Gothic  iron  "Ofenplatten."  She  was  interested 
in  every  detail.  Once  she  spent  a  long  time  hunt- 
ing for  a  passage-way  which  she  knew  must  be 
there  because  of  the  "pechnaze,"  or  slit  in  the  wall 
through  which  boiling  lead  used  to  be  poured  in 
medigeval  sieges.  When  out  riding  she  always 
kept  a  keen  look-out  for  survivals  of  the  past. 
Thus  she  was  much  interested  in  the  iron  crosses  to 
be  found  in  the  Taunus,  and  she  proposed  to  draw 
all  the  diiFerent  kinds  and  publish  a  book  about 
them. 

To  the  restoration  of  Cronberg  Church  the  Em- 
press devoted  an  immense  amount  of  personal 
trouble.  Two  Ministers  and  some  important  offi- 
cials had  to  be  approached  before  the  order  from 
the  Cabinet  was  obtained  granting  the  necessary 
financial  help.     When  it  was  at  last  issued,  the 


346      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Empress  herself  brought  it  to  Cronberg,  and,  ar- 
riving there  in  the  evening,  carried  it  the  first  thing 
in  the  morning  to  the  pastor.  Hardly  a  nail  was 
put  in  the  church  without  her  knowledge.  She 
studied  and  re-studied  for  months  the  details  of 
windows,  doors,  hinges,  &c.  Her  delight  was  ^eat 
when  under  the  whitewash  she  discovered  some 
frescoes  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

A  tablet  was  put  up  in  the  choir  setting  forth 
what  the  Empress  had  done  for  the  restoration  of 
the  church,  but  here  the  truly  modest  nature  of  the 
woman  showed  itself.  She  had  the  tablet  removed 
from  the  choir,  and  refixed  in  a  place  high  up 
where  it  is  practically  unseen. 

It  is  pleasant  to  look  back  on  these  comparatively 
happy  years  at  Friedrichshof.  The  Empress  as 
a  rule  dressed  very  simply  in  black.  Her  only 
jewellery  were  two  gold  rings,  one  with  a  sapphire 
and  two  diamonds,  and  the  other  a  smooth  ruby, 
while  a  miniature  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  hung 
round  her  neck.  She  was  up  early  every  morning. 
She  liked  to  see  everything  bright  and  gleaming  in 
the  Castle,  and  not  a  speck  of  dust  was  allowed. 
At  eight  o'clock  it  was  her  habit  to  go  out  riding 
for  two  hours.  She  was  an  excellent  horsewoman 
and  full  of  daring;  even  when  nearing  sixty  she  still 
jumped  difficult  ditches  and  obstacles,  and  she  al- 
ways rode  young  and  spirited  animals.  Once  she 
was  pushed  against  a  wall  by  a  frisky  horse,  and 
later  she  had  the  more  serious  accident  which  some 


LIFE  AT  FRIEDRICHSHOF       347 

think  brought  about  her  final  illness.  But  even  in 
the  worst  weather  she  never  gave  up  her  morning 
ride. 

During  her  widowhood  the  Empress  had  at  last 
the  joy  of  knowing  that  she  was  really  loved  and 
understood  by  her  neighbours,  both  gentle  and 
simple.  She  was  regarded  at  Cronberg  much  as 
Queen  Victoria  was  regarded  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Balmoral.  She  made  herself  acquainted  with 
practically  the  whole  population,  not  only  with  the 
poor,  on  whom  she  was  able  to  shower  intelligent 
gifts  and  much  practical  good  advice,  but  also  with 
that  difficult  intermediate  class  who,  all  the  world 
over,  generally  remain  out  of  touch  with  the  great 
house  of  the  village. 

People  of  this  class  dwelt  in  little  chalets  which 
began  to  spring  up  over  that  healthy  and  beautiful 
neighbourhood,  but  even  their  thorny  pride  was 
not  proof  against  the  Empress's  friendliness,  in 
which  there  was  never  any  touch  of  condescension 
or  patronage.  There  were  not  a  few  artists  living 
in  the  neighbourhood,  and  with  some  of  these  the 
Empress  was  on  specially  intimate  terms.  She 
was  fond  of  dropping  in  and  finding  them  at  work. 
The  Empress  was  full  of  quaint  conceits  and  ideas ; 
thus,  when  she  was  going  to  see  an  artist  or  any- 
one in  whom  she  took  a  special  interest,  she  liked 
to  choose  his  birthday  for  the  visit.  Her  energy 
was  extraordinary.  One  observer  who  saw  a  great 
deal  of  her  in  her  widowhood  declares  that  she  used 


348      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

to  go  upstairs  and  downstairs  like  a  young  girl, 
and  when  she  greeted  the  company  assembled  at 
table  every  compulsion  of  etiquette  seemed  to  be 
instantly  removed. 

Naturally  Cronberg  benefited  by  her  great 
knowledge  of  hygiene.  To  the  elaborately 
equipped  hospital  which  she  founded  there,  she  gave 
the  most  punctilious  care.  She  often  cut  her  roses 
herself  and  took  them  to  the  sick.  The  Empress 
also  built  a  poorhouse,  a  Victoria  school,  and  a  li- 
brary for  the  people,  and  she  arranged  the  Victoria 
and  Kaiser  Friedrich  public  park.  She  hated  leav- 
ing Cronberg  every  autumn:  "The  departure  is 
dreadful  to  me,'*  she  said  on  one  occasion :  "when 
I  am  travelling  I  feel  like  a  mussel  without  its 
shell." 

Professor  Nippold,  in  his  book  on  the  first  two 
German  Emperors,  has  drawn  a  very  sjTnpathetic 
and  understanding  picture  of  the  Empress  Fred- 
erick. 

She  had,  he  says,  a  most  cheerful  temperament, 
and  a  rapid  eye  for  the  humorous,  in  spite  of  so 
many  terrible  blows  of  fate.  She  always  saw 
everything  from  the  good  side  and  quickly  forgave 
people  their  faults;  no  one  was  allowed  to  speak 
ill  of  anyone  in  her  presence.  She  was  often  mis- 
understood and  unjustly  accused,  and  when  she 
saw  things  written  against  her  in  the  papers  she 
was  terribly  wounded.  For  instance,  it  was  said 
that  she  had  prevented  the  building  of  a  tower  on 


LIFE  AT  FRIEDRICHSHOF       349 

the  "Altkonig"  for  the  public  to  enjoy  the  view, 
but  the  fact  was  that  she  had  never  heard  anything 
about  the  proposal.  Sometimes  she  could  hardly 
be  restrained  from  answering  some  of  these  base 
accusations.  She  was  also  accused  of  parsimony, 
and  her  income  was  enormously  exaggerated. 
The  claims  on  her  purse  were  innumerable.  She 
had  forty-two  philanthropic  institutions  which  she 
had  to  help,  and  in  one  year  there  were  thirty-seven 
bazaars,  to  each  of  which  she  had  to  send  gifts.  Al- 
together her  expenses  were  enormously  heavy. 

When  the  Empress  is  blamed  for  being  a 
thorough  Englishwoman,  let  it  be  said  at  once,  ex- 
claims Professor  Nippold,  that  everything  good 
and  praiseworthy  in  England  she  tried  to  introduce 
into  her  own  adopted  country.  She  was  always 
vexed  and  pained  when  things  were  said  against 
England,  more  especially  in  the  case  of  England's 
colonies.  "The  English,"  she  would  say,  "arrange 
everything  in  the  Colonies  most  beautifully, — 
roads,  railways,  post,  telegraphs,  hospitals,  schools, 
and  police,  and  then  everyone,  to  whichever  nation 
he  belongs,  can  trade  undisturbed.  And  I  cannot 
think  that  for  that  England  should  be  thanked  in 
such  an  evil  way!"  Many  people  regarded  it  as 
an  injustice  to  Germany  that  she  should  have  had 
such  warm  sympathies  with  England.  She  was 
through  and  through  an  Englishwoman,  if  not  by 
descent,  yet  by  every  impression  received  in  child- 
hood and  by  education. 


350      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

The  professor  goes  on  to  express  the  opinion 
that  no  Enghshman  or  Englishwoman,  of  what- 
ever age,  ever  gives  up  his  or  her  nationality  and 
love  of  country,  in  whatever  circumstances  they 
may  find  themselves,  "a  contrast  to  so  many  Ger- 
mans, who  are  far  less  faithful  to  their  nationality. 
The  Empress  Frederick,  as  eldest  child  of  Queen 
Victoria  of  England,  had  the  title  of  Princess 
Royal,  and  she  could  not  help  feeling  herself  the 
first  princess  of  a  wonderful  Empire  of  very  old 
culture,  and  this  proud  feeling  never  left  her." 

This  estimate  and  defence  of  the  Empress  is 
particularly  valuable  as  coming  from  a  man  of 
shrewd  intelligence  and  observation,  who  was  him- 
self a  German. 

On  another  occasion  Nippold  wrote  of  the  Em- 
press with  clear  insight:  "One  thing  this  distin- 
guished woman  never  understood — ^to  hide  her 
feelings.  She  never  posed ;  everything  was  sincere 
in  her  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word." 

In  her  will  the  Empress  left  Professor  Nippold 
a  letter-weight,  which  she  had  used  every  day,  as 
a  souvenir  of  a  conversation  they  had  had  one  even- 
ing in  her  study.  This  letter-weight,  which  always 
lay  on  her  table,  was  composed  of  an  old  Roman 
bronze — a  broken  Sphinx  figure — on  a  marble  slab. 
A  ring  bound  this  figure  to  the  slab,  and  the  in- 
scription engraved  was:  "This  stone  was  picked 
up  by  H.R.H.  Princess  Elizabeth  on  the  walk  of 
Frogmore,  1808." 


LIFE  AT  FRIEDRICHSHOF       351 

Professor  Nippold  goes  on  to  say  that  while  the 
Empress  was  talking  to  him  one  evening  a  tele- 
gram arrived  which  obviously  had  to  do  with  the 
crisis  which  led  to  the  Greco-Turkish  War.  As 
Nippold  saw  that  she  was  much  preoccupied  with 
the  telegram  and  had  to  think  of  the  answer,  and 
yet  did  not  want  to  send  him  away,  he  delicately 
asked  to  be  allowed  to  wait  and  look  at  the  pic- 
tures. When  the  Empress  resumed  the  conversa- 
tion, the  professor  asked  about  a  picture  which 
hung  in  the  study.  She  named  the  different  fig- 
ures in  the  group,  among  them  being  that  young 
Princess  Elizabeth  who  had  found  the  stone. 

That  she  should  have  left  Nippold  the  letter- 
weight  showed,  as  he  truly  says,  the  wonderful 
memory  and  kindly  attention  in  which  consists  la 
politesse  des  Princes. 

The  Princess  Elizabeth  married  one  of  the  last 
Counts  of  Hesse-Homburg.  Since  then  a  monu- 
ment to  that  Royal  house  has  been  erected  in  Hom- 
burg,  and  in  the  Emperor's  speech  at  the  unveiling 
on  August  17,  1906,  occurred  these  words:  "I 
commemorate  the  Landgrafin  Elizabeth,  a  daugh- 
ter of  George  III  of  England.  She  was  a  real 
mother  to  this  country  and  worked  and  cared  for 
her  adopted  fatherland.  The  Homburgers  to  this 
day  think  of  her  with  real  thankfulness  and  rever- 
ence." 

Professor  Nippold  gives  a  characteristic  letter 
which  he  received  from  the  Empress,  evidently  on 


352      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  subject  of  those  historical  studies  of  the  House 
of  Hohenzollern  to  which,  as  we  have  already  men- 
tioned, the  Emperor  Frederick  at  one  time  devoted 
himself  with  ardour.  The  letter  is  so  interesting, 
especially  in  the  views  which  it  expresses  on  the 
subject  of  royal  biography,  that  to  quote  it  in  full 
needs  no  apology: 

"Deae  Professor, — Many  thanks  for  sending 
the  separate  pages  from  the  Deutsche  Revue  of 
February,  and  for  your  excellent  report,  which  has 
so  much  in  it  that  does  my  heart  good.  You  mean 
well  and  truly,  not  only  as  regards  history,  but 
also  with  the  noble  men  who  now  lie  in  their  graves, 
and  whose  deeds  and  influence  should  be  properly 
appreciated  in  wide  circles  and  through  the  proper 
medium. 

"The  work  grows,  however,  even  as  you  work 
upon  it;  the  subject  becomes  more  and  more  im- 
portant, and  one  should  ask  oneself  whether  the 
time  has  come  thus  to  lift  the  veil.  Would  it  not 
be  wiser  and  more  cautious  to  close  these  papers 
for  the  Revue,  and  then  to  continue  your  labours, 
so  that  later  a  book  could  appear  for  which  we 
could  utilise  this  material,  but  not  lightly  or  too 
soon?  The  letter  of  which  you  send  me  a  copy — 
from  our  Kaiser  Freidrich  Wilhelm  IV — should 
not,  for  instance,  appear  without  the  letter  from 
my  father,  but  that  would  arouse  a  fearful  storm 
of  discussion.     In  the  poHtical  world  there  is  so 


LIFE  AT  FRIEDRICHSHOF       353 

much  tinder  ready  that  one  must  do  all  one  can  to 
avoid  bringing  in  anji;hing  exciting. 

"As  long  as  Bismarck  is  alive,  it  is  very  diffi- 
cult! Also  these  things  affect  my  mother,  so  that 
I  should  like  very  much  to  have  a  serious  talk  with 
you  before  the  publication  continues  in  the 
Deutsche  Revue.  Professor  Ranke  has  handled 
the  life  of  Freidrich  Wilhelm  IV  as  the  Court  here 
wished  it  to  be  treated.  Similar  books  have  now 
appeared,  with  authorisation,  with  regard  to  the 
Kaiser  Wilhelm,  and  in  Weimar,  I  believe,  some- 
one is  writing  a  book  on  the  Kaiserin  Augusta. 
All  these  writers,  however,  are  strictly  conservative 
and  orthodox  in  religion  (therefore  one-sided), 
and  of  all  those  currents  which  flowed  into  the  lives 
of  the  dead,  no  word  is  spoken,  in  the  sense  that  I 
mean.  It  is  impossible  thus  to  omit  and  yet  give 
the  public  a  true  picture  of  the  persons,  of  their 
time,  and  of  the  parts  they  played.  You  will 
see  for  yourself  the  consequences  of  such  publica- 
tion. You  have  more  experience  than  I,  and  per- 
haps you  can  reassure  me." 


CHAPTER  XXI 

LAST  YEARS 

DuEiNG  the  last  years  of  her  life,  the  Empress 
Frederick  paid  repeated  visits  to  England,  where 
she  had  many  attached  friends. 

She  much  enjoyed  a  visit  to  the  Bishop  of  Ripon 
in  1895,  when  she  was  able  to  study  the  wood  carv- 
ing in  the  cathedral,  as  well  as  Fountains  Abbey 
and  other  places  of  historical  interest.  It  was 
characteristic  of  her  that  only  a  few  moments  be- 
fore she  left  Ripon,  while  she  was  actually  waiting 
for  the  carriage  to  take  her  to  the  station,  she  ex- 
claimed, "How  much  I  should  like  to  paint  this 
view!"  Drawing  materials  and  a  paint-box  were 
brought  her;  she  sat  down,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
produced  a  charming  sketch  of  the  cathedral  amid 
fields  and  trees. 

As  an  artist  the  Empress  was  undoubtedly  far 
more  than  a  mere  amateur,  especially  in  sculpture. 
It  is  said  that  on  one  occasion,  having  given  a 
commission  to  the  famous  German  sculptor, 
Uphues,  for  a  colossal  statue  of  the  Emperor 
Frederick,  she  visited  his  studio  one  day  when  he 
was  at  work  on  the  clay  model.  This  did  not  seem 
to  her  to  promise  a  good  likeness,  and  she  there- 
upon set  to  work  on  the  clay  herself,  and  in  about 

354 


LAST  YEARS  355 

half  an  hour  she  quite  transformed  the  model,  so 
that  when  it  was  carried  out  in  marble  it  became 
universally  recognised  as  the  best  presentment  in 
existence  of  the  Emperor's  features.  Uphues  also 
made  a  bust  of  the  Empress  herself,  which  was  set 
up  in  1902  on  the  Kaiser  Friedrich  Promenade  at 
Homburg. 

The  Empress  had  first  met  the  Boyd  Carpenters 
in  1866,  soon  after  the  death  of  Prince  Sigismund. 
She  happened  to  hear  a  sermon  from  the  then 
Canon  Boyd  Carpenter  which  brought  her  much 
comfort,  and  the  acquaintance  then  begun  devel- 
oped into  warm  friendship. 

The  Bishop  had  a  great  admiration  for  the  Em- 
press's sympathetic  alacrity  of  mind.  "She  had 
wide  range,"  he  writes,  "and  quick  intellectual  sym- 
pathies ;  she  understood  a  passing  allusion ;  she  fol- 
lowed the  track  of  thought ;  there  were  no  irritating 
delays;  there  were  no  vacant  incoherences  in  an 
observation,  which  show  that  the  thread  has  been 
lost.  She  had  read;  she  had  thought;  she  had 
travelled;  she  had  observed;  she  had  mixed  with 
many  of  the  foremost  minds  of  the  time;  she  had 
taken  practical  part  in  many  great  and  humane 
enterprises.  Consequently  her  range  was  large, 
and  her  mental  equipment  was  well  furnished  and 
ready  for  use.  Conversation  with  her  could  never 
become  insipid." 

The  Empress  always  did  everything  she  could 
to  improve  Anglo-German  relations,  and  the  feeling 


356      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

aroused  by  the  famous  telegram  which  her  son 
sent  to  President  Kruger  in  January,  1896,  keenly 
distressed  her.  She  wrote  to  her  old  friend  Sir 
Moimtstuart  Grant  Duff: 

"But  even  this  most  sad  episode  between  our  two 
countries  has  not  shaken  my  faith  in  our  old  opin- 
ions that  there  are  many,  many  higher  interests  in 
common,  why  we  should  get  on  together  and  be 
of  use  to  each  other  in  helping  on  civilisation  and 
progress.  I  trust  that  a  good  understanding  will 
outlive  hatred  and  jealousy." 

And  again:  "When  I  think  of  my  father  and 
of  all  his  friends  and  of  our  friends,  it  appears  to 
me  almost  ludicrous  that  Germany  and  England 
should  be  enemies." 

In  1897  the  Empress  Frederick  took  part  in 
the  Diamond  Jubilee,  driving  in  the  procession  with 
Princess  Henry  of  Battenberg.  The  sight  of  the 
two  widowed  sisters,  who  had  put  aside  their  grief 
to  join  in  that  great  day  of  national  rejoicing, 
deeply  touched  many  of  the  spectators.  The  Em- 
press herself  wrote  of  this  occasion  in  which  she 
"gladly  and  thankfully  joined  with  proud  heart": 

"The  weight  of  lonely,  hidden  grief  often  feels 
heaviest  when  all  surroundings  are  in  such  con- 
trast. And  yet  the  heart  of  man  is  so  made  that 
many  feelings  find  room  in  it  together;  so  grati- 
tude and  thankfulness  mingle  with  memories  so 
sad  that  they  can  never  lose  their  bitterness." 

Madame   Waddington,   the   wife   of   that   old 


LAST  YEARS  357 

Rugby  and  Cambridge  man  who  filled  with  such 
distinction  the  post  of  French  Ambassador  in  Lon- 
don, has  left  a  record  of  a  conversation  she  had  with 
the  Empress  in  August,  1897.  Madame  Wad- 
dington,  who  was  an  American  by  birth,  was  struck 
by  a  question  the  Empress  asked  her,  namely, 
whether  she  did  not  find  it  difficult  to  settle  down 
in  France  after  having  lived  ten  years  in  London — 
"the  great  centre  of  the  world."  Madame  Wad- 
dington  replied  that  she  was  not  at  all  to  be  pitied 
for  living  in  Paris,  that  her  son  was  a  Frenchman, 
and  all  his  interests  were  in  France.  She  adds: 
"Au  fond,  notwithstanding  all  the  years  she  has 
lived  in  Germany,  the  Empress  is  absolutely  Eng- 
lish still  in  her  heart." 

They  had  some  talk  about  Wagner,  and  Madame 
Waddington  informed  the  Empress  that  there  was 
a  difficulty  as  to  the  performance  of  Die  Meister- 
singer  at  the  Grand  Opera  owing  to  the  fact  that 
Frau  Wagner  considered  the  choruses  too  difficult 
to  translate  or  to  sing  with  the  true  spirit  in  any 
language  but  German.     The  Empress  replied: 

"She  is  quite  right;  it  is  one  of  the  most  difficult 
of  Wagner's  operas,  and  essentially  German  in 
plot  and  structure.  It  scarcely  bears  translation 
in  English,  and  in  French  would  be  impossible; 
— neither  is  the  music  in  my  mind  at  all  suited  to 
the  French  character.  The  mythical  legends  of 
the  Cycle  would  appeal  more  to  the  French,  I  think, 
than  the  ordinary  German  life." 


358      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

The  Empress  was  a  real  connoisseur  in  music, 
of  which  she  had  a  wide  knowledge,  though  her 
skill  as  a  performer  was  considered  to  be  inferior 
to  that  of  Queen  Victoria. 

Like  her  mother,  the  Empress  Frederick  was  a 
great  letter-writer.  She  wrote  in  a  mixture  of 
German  and  English,  choosing  the  most  telling 
expressions,  and  she  was  in  constant  communica- 
tion with  various  distinguished  Englishmen  for 
years.  To  them  she  sent  long  and  very  frank  let- 
ters about  everything  that  interested  her,  especially 
foreign  politics. 

As  has  been  already  indicated  in  this  book,  the 
Empress  was  in  the  habit  of  showing  far  more 
clearly  than  most  Royal  personages  allow  them- 
selves to  do,  exactly  what  she  felt  about  those  whom 
she  met  even  for  the  first  or  second  time.  This 
found  either  an  answering  antagonism  or  a  re- 
ciprocal liking  in  those  with  whom  she  was  brought 
in  contact. 

Many  of  the  distinguished  men  whom  she  heart- 
ily admired  speak  of  her,  and  that  in  their  most 
secret  letters  and  diaries,  with  an  admiration  ap- 
proaching enthusiasm.  But  now  and  again  comes 
a  discordant  note.  Such  may  be  found  in  Mr.  G. 
W.  Smalley's  Anglo-American  Memories. 

The  old  journalist  describes  her  in  a  way  which 
gives  a  far  from  pleasant  impression  of  the  Em- 
press towards  the  end  of  her  life.  He  was  pre- 
sented to  her  by  the  then  Prince  of  Wales  at  Hom- 


LAST  YEARS  359 

burg,  and  the  first  thing  he  noticed  was  that,  though 
she  was  very  like  Queen  Victoria,  her  manner  was 
less  simple  and  therefore  had  less  authority.  He 
also  criticises  her  dress,  and  observes  that  both  the 
late  Queen  and  her  eldest  daughter  "showed  an  in- 
difference to  the  art  of  personal  adornment." 

Mr.  Smalley  admits  that  the  Empress  has  a 
much  greater  vivacity  than  the  Queen,  but  he 
thinks  that  this  vivacity  becomes  restless,  and  that 
her  mind  can  never  be  in  repose.  He  says  drily 
that,  from  her  marriage  and  down  to  the  day  of 
the  Emperor  Frederick's  death,  she  had  lived  in  a 
dream-world  of  her  own  creation,  her  belief  being 
so  strong,  her  conviction  that  she  knew  what  was 
best  for  those  about  her  so  complete,  that  the  facts 
had  to  adjust  themselves  as  best  they  could  to  that 
belief  and  that  conviction. 

As  was  the  Empress's  way  when  a  stranger,  and 
especially  a  foreigner,  was  presented  to  her,  she  at 
once  began  to  talk  of  Mr.  Smalley's  country  and 
of  what  she  supposed  would  interest  him.  Instead 
of  allowing  him  to  say  what  he  thought,  she  plunged 
directly  into  American  topics,  especially  comment- 
ing on  what  she  supposed  to  be  the  position  of 
women  in  the  United  States.  It  soon  became 
clear,  or  so  he  thought,  that  she  had  a  correspond- 
ent in  Chicago  from  whom  she  had  derived  her 
impressions.  "She  talked  with  clearness,  with  en- 
ergy and  almost  apostolic  fervour,  the  voice  pene- 
trating rather  than  melodious." 


360      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

Mr.  Smalley  said  to  himself  that  all  that  she 
asserted  might  be  true  of  Chicago,  but  of  what 
else  was  it  true?  And  he  was  evidently  much 
nettled  that  she  generalised  from  the  "Windy  City" 
to  the  rest  of  the  United  States. 

Instead  of  seeing,  as  probably  most  women 
would  have  seen,  that  she  was  speaking  to  an  au- 
ditor who  was  fast  becoming  prejudiced,  the  Em- 
press continued  to  unburden  herself  in  the  frankest, 
freest  way  to  this  journalist  whom  she  had  never 
met  before.  She  even  seems  to  have  touched  on 
politics,  on  Anglo-German  relations,  on  thie  in- 
ternal affairs  of  Germany: 

"Never  for  a  moment  did  this  dreamer's  talk  stop 
or  grow  sluggish.  Carlyle  summed  up  Macaulay 
in  the  phrase  'Flow  on,  thou  shining  river' ;  he  might 
in  a  sardonic  mood  have  done  the  same  to  this  Prin- 
cess." 

It  was  an  illuminating  interview,  declares  Mr. 
Smalley,  throwing  light  on  events  to  come  as  well 
as  on  those  of  the  past,  and  he  goes  on  to  explain 
that  multitudes  of  Germans  shared  Bismarck's  dis- 
trust of  the  Crown  Princess,  and  believed  that  she 
wanted  to  Anglicise  Germany.  He  reiterates  what 
has  so  often  been  said — that  she  told  all-comers  that 
what  Germany  needed  was  Parliamentary  govern- 
ment as  it  was  understood  and  practised  in  Eng- 
land. In  little  things  as  in  great  she  made  no 
secret  for  her  preference  for  what  was  English  over 
what  was  German: 


I 


LAST  YEARS  361 

"Judgment  was  not  her  strong  point,  nor  was 
tact;  if  I  am  to  say  what  was  her  strong  point,  I 
suppose  it  would  be  sincerity.  Her  gifts  of  mind 
were  dazzling  rather  than  sound;  impulse  was  not 
always  under  control.  Her  animosities  once  roused 
never  slept,  as  Prince  Bismarck  well  knew." 

Seldom  has  a  more  prejudiced  view  of  the  Em- 
press been  given  to  the  world,  but  it  is  interesting 
as  showing  how  she  sometimes  impressed  those  who 
had  been  fascinated  by  the  Bismarck  legend  when 
they  were  brought  into  passing  contact  with  her 
eager,  enthusiastic  mind. 

To  a  fall  from  her  horse  at  Cronberg  in  the 
autumn  of  1898  may  be  traced  the  beginning  of  that 
merciless  disease  which  ultimately  killed  her. 

It  was  a  bad  accident.  The  horse  reared  and  the 
Empress  fell  on  the  wrong  side  on  her  head  with 
her  feet  under  the  horse  and  her  habit  still  clinging 
to  the  saddle.  Her  head  was  much  bruised,  and 
her  right  hand  was  injured  and  trodden  on  by  the 
horse.  She  was  not  at  all  frightened,  indeed  she 
took  it  very  calmly,  observing: 

"I  have  ridden  for  fifty  years,  and  it  is  natural 
that  an  accident  must  come  sooner  or  later.  But 
I  shall  ride  to-morrow.  I'm  going  to  try  and  paint 
and  write  some  letters  in  spite  of  my  hand." 

But  her  injuries  did  not  yield  to  treatment,  and 
very  soon  began  the  long  martjTdom  of  pain  which 
she  bore  for  more  than  two  years  with  the  same 
stoic  fortitude  wkich  tb*  Emperor  Frederick  kad 


362      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

shown.  The  disease  was  undoubtedly  cancer,  and 
it  is  suggested  that  it  had  been  gathering  force  for 
quite  a  number  of  years.  However  that  may  be, 
it  was  certainly  known  in  1900  that  a  cure  was  im- 
possible. 

The  most  terrible  feature  of  these  last  months 
was  the  severe  pain  which  seized  her  at  intervals. 
It  was  characteristic,  both  of  her  courage  and  of  her 
kindly  nature,  that  during  these  attacks  she  would 
not  see  even  the  members  of  her  family,  to  whom 
the  sight  of  her  suiFerings  would  have  been  so  dis- 
tressing. But  in  the  intervals  she  occupied  her- 
self with  conversation,  or  one  of  her  ladies  would 
read  aloud  to  her,  and  she  even  painted  a  little. 
Her  son,  the  Emperor,  was  constant  in  his  atten- 
tions, coming  over  almost  daily  from  Homburg, 
but  even  he  was  only  allowed  to  remain  with  her  a 
few  minutes  at  a  time. 

Physically  the  patient  had  suffered  a  great 
change.  Her  cheeks,  which  had  been  round  and 
apparently  in  the  bloom  of  health,  gradually  be- 
came thin  and  sunken,  and  her  face  assumed  that 
curious  transparent  paleness  which  is  the  unmis- 
takable sign  of  approaching  death. 

It  is  said  that  when  the  Empress  received  the 
news  of  Queen  Victoria's  death,  in  January,  1901, 
she  said  to  those  about  her:  "I  wish  I  were  dead 
too."  But  for  more  than  six  months  longer  she 
bore  with  extraordinary  fortitude  the  chronic  suf- 
fering which  the  most  able  physicians  were  unable 


LAST  YEARS  363 

to  relieve.  Her  consideration  for  those  around  her 
was  constant.  On  one  occasion,  in  a  spasm  of 
agony,  she  cried  out  loudly  and  seized  the  nurse's 
hand;  then  at  once  apologised:  "I  am  so  sorry,  I 
am  afraid  I  hurt  you."  The  nurse  said  afterwards, 
*'I  have  only  been  with  the  Empress  for  a  week,  but 
already  she  has  filled  me  with  higher  ideals,  and  I 
am  going  back  resolved  to  be  a  better  nurse  than 
ever." 

As  long  as  it  was  possible,  the  Empress  con- 
tinued her  painting  and  drawing;  and  to  the  very 
end  she  was  especially  happy  when  she  was  able 
to  work  with  some  practical  object  in  view,  such 
as  the  laying  out  of  a  new  rose-garden  or  suggest- 
ing alterations  in  architectural  plans.  Her  great- 
est pleasure — and  she  was  intensely  susceptible  to 
happiness  even  during  the  last  six  sad  months — 
was  a  visit  from  her  eldest  brother.  When  she 
was  expecting  King  Edward,  she  supervised  closely 
every  little  arrangement  made  for  his  comfort  and 
convenience,  and  while  doing  so  she  would  be 
wheeled  in  her  bath-chair  about  the  rooms  he  was 
to  occupy. 

She  felt  most  deeply  the  attacks  which  were  then 
being  made  in  Germany  on  England,  and  even  on 
King  Edward,  at  the  time  of  the  Boer  War.  An 
article  in  the  Vossische  Zeitung,  which  observed 
that  such  attacks  on  a  constitutional  Sovereign  were 
unworthy  of  a  great  nation,  gave  her  much  satis- 
faction. '  \ 


364      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

King  Edward  paid  his  last  visit  to  his  sister  at 
Cronberg  in  February,  1901.  A  contemporary 
chronicler  notes  that  everything  was  arranged  to 
show  that  the  visit  was  meant  for  the  Empress 
Frederick  and  not  for  her  son.  This  was  doubt- 
less by  the  wish  of  the  Emperor  himself,  for,  though 
he  did  all  due  honour  to  his  uncle,  meeting  him  at 
Frankfort  and  conducting  him  across  the  lovely 
Taunus  Valley,  to  the  very  door  of  Friedrichshof, 
he  took  leave  of  King  Edward  at  the  threshold,  so 
that  the  brother  and  sister  might  be  alone  at  their 
first  meeting. 

Among  the  last  English  visitors  received  by  the 
Empress  at  Friedrichshof  were  her  old  friends,  the 
Boyd  Carpenters.     This  was  in  May,  1901. 

They  found  her  on  their  arrival  lying  on  a  couch 
in  her  beautiful  garden,  and  the  Bishop  was  struck 
by  her  likeness  to  Queen  Victoria — a  likeness  en- 
hanced by  the  black  dress  and  by  the  form  of  hat 
which  she  wore.  The  Empress  rejoiced  in  the 
spring  and  in  the  colour  which  was  spreading  every- 
where through  her  garden.  She  still  took  a  prac- 
tical interest  in  everything  concerning  the  beauti- 
ful home  she  had  created.  The  Bishop  gives  one 
instance :  the  great  blue  face  of  the  clock,  the  tower 
of  which  dominated  Friedrichshof,  needed  re-paint- 
ing. Before  she  decided  what  exact  tint  should  be 
used,  she  caused  slips  of  paper  giving  different 
shades  of  blue  to  be  held  up  against  the  face  of  the 
clock.     Then  she  made  up  her  mind. 


LAST  YEARS  365 

Once,  as  they  passed  through  the  flower  garden 
together,  she  quoted  to  the  Bishop  the  words,  "The 
effectual  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much.'* 
Another  time,  looking  round  at  the  beauty  of  the 
trees  she  had  planted,  she  said,  "I  feel  like  Moses 
on  Pisgah,  looking  at  the  land  of  promise  which  I 
must  not  enter." 

When  parting  from  Mrs.  Boyd  Carpenter,  for 
whom  she  had  a  great  regard,  the  Empress  gave 
her  a  bracelet  of  her  own,  one  she  had  often  worn 
and  with  which  she  had  affectionate  associations. 

To  the  Bishop  she  gave  a  seal  which  had  belonged 
to  Queen  Victoria,  and  which  had  been  in  the  room 
when  the  Queen  died.  It  commemorated  a  picnic 
in  Scotland,  in  which  the  Queen,  the  Prince  Con- 
sort, and  Princess  Alice  had  shared.  The  seal, 
mounted  in  silver  and  set  in  Aberdeen  granite,  was 
a  cairngorm  found  by  Prince  Albert  and  Princess 
Alice  on  that  day. 

The  Bishop  remained  with  her  a  moment  at  the 
very  last,  and  she  said  to  him,  "When  I  am  gone  I 
want  you  to  read  the  English  Burial  Service  over 
me."  And  then  she  characteristically  explained  to 
him  exactly  what  would  have  to  be  done  to  make 
this  possible.  When  the  end  came  three  months 
later,  thanks  to  the  prompt  acquiescence  of  the  Em- 
peror, his  mother's  wishes  were  carried  out. 

The  Empress  became  much  worse  at  the  begin- 
ning of  August,  and,  by  the  wish  of  her  son,  Canon 
Teignmouth- Shore  was  telegraphed  for.     He  ar- 


366      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

rived  at  Friedrichshof  on  August  5,  and  in  the 
presence  of  the  Emperor  and  the  Empress's 
daughters  the  Canon  knelt  down  and  offered  some 
prayers  from  the  Office  for  the  Visitation  of  the 
Sick.  The  whole  sad  scene,  he  says,  was  quite  over- 
powering and  far  too  sacred  for  him  to  describe. 
"The  dying  Empress  was  at  first  slightly  conscious, 
and  I  could  see  a  gentle  movement  of  her  lips  as 
we  said  the  Lord's  Prayer." 

Towards  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  the  Canon 
was  again  summoned  to  the  sick-room.  "The 
sweet  noble  soul  was  just  passing  away.  I  said 
a  few  prayers  at  the  bedside,  concluding  with  the 
first  two  verses  of  that  exquisite  poem,  'Now  the 
labourer's  task  is  o'er.'  " 

A  butterfly  flew  into  the  room  and  hovered  for 
awhile  over  the  dying  Empress,  and  when  she  had 
breathed  her  last  it  spread  its  wings  and  flew  out 
into  the  free  air  again. 

The  Emperor  desired  Canon  Teignmouth- Shore 
to  arrange  with  Dr.  Boyd  Carpenter  for  a  private 
funeral  service  to  be  held  at  Friedrichshof. 

On  the  following  Sunday  the  Canon  preached  a 
funeral  sermon  in  the  English  church  at  Homburg. 
In  it  he  made  a  statement  with  regard  to  her  Maj- 
esty's religious  views  which  deserves  quotation: 

"The  religious  conceptions  which  inspired  and 
guided  this  life,  alike  in  its  humblest  and  in  its 
loftiest  spheres  of  action,  were,  as  I  believe,  neither 
crude  nor  complex  nor  dogmatic;  they  were  clear 


LAST  YEARS  36T 

and  simple  and  broad — an  absolute  faith  in  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  and  in  the  Brotherhood  and 
redeeming  love  of  Him  who  died  that  we  might 
live." 

The  Lutheran  funeral  service,  which  was  held 
in  the  parish  church  of  Cronberg,  was  most  impress- 
ive in  its  simplicity.  At  one  point  of  the  service 
the  Crown  Prince  and  three  of  his  young  brothers 
rose  from  their  seats,  and,  having  put  on  their 
helmets,  drew  their  swords  and  took  their  places 
at  each  corner  of  the  coffin  of  their  grandmother, 
where  they  remained  until  the  end  of  the  service. 

This  old  church,  which,  as  we  know,  the  Empress 
had  herself  restored,  dates  back  to  the  middle  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  On  the  organ,  which  is  of 
exquisite  tone,  Mendelsshon  often  played  when  he 
visited  the  Taunus. 

Perhaps  the  most  touching  of  all  the  hundreds 
of  wreaths  sent  for  the  funeral  was  one  of  simple 
heather  which  had  been  made  by  the  Emperor's 
younger  children.  Attached  to  it  was  a  sheet  of 
black-edged  paper  on  which  they  had  all  written 
their  names  in  large  childish  characters. 

The  Empress  was  buried  beside  her  husband  and 
her  son  Waldemar  in  the  Friedenskirche  at  Pots- 
dam, and  the  sarcophagus  over  her  tomb  is  by  her 
artist  friend,  Begas. 

Of  memorials  to  her,  there  is  the  bust  at  Hom- 
burg  already  mentioned.  In  the  English  church 
at  Homburg,  where  she  attended  divine  service  for 


368      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

the  first  time  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  is  a 
memorial  consisting  of  four  reliefs,  placed  in  the 
spandrels  of  the  arches  in  the  aisle,  representing 
the  four  Evangelists.  A  striking  statue  of  the 
Empress  in  coronation  robes  by  Gerth  was  unveiled 
by  the  Emperor  William  in  October,  1903.  It  is 
opposite  the  statue  of  her  husband  in  the  open  space 
outside  the  Brandenburg  gate  at  Berlin. 

So  lived,  and  so  died,  this  most  gifted  and  gener- 
ous lady,  who  was  rendered  illustrious,  not  by  the 
symbols  of  her  Imperial  station,  but  by  her  many 
winning  qualities  of  heart  and  intellect. 

We  cannot  do  better  than  quote  in  conclusion 
from  the  remarkable  tributes  which  were  paid  to 
her  memory  by  the  late  Lord  Salisbury  and  the  late 
Lord  Spencer. 

Lord  Salisbury,  who  was  then  Prime  Minister, 
in  moving  an  address  of  condolence  with  King  Ed- 
ward in  the  House  of  Lords,  summed  up  in  mas- 
terly fashion  both  the  beauty  and  the  tragedy  of 
the  Empress's  life: 

"When  the  then  Princess  Royal  left  these 
shores,  there  was  no  person,  either  of  contemporary 
experience  or  in  history,  before  whom  a  brighter 
prospect  extended  itself  in  life,  and  all  that  could 
make  it  desirable  spread  itself  before  her.  She 
had  a  devoted  husband,  himself  one  of  the  noblest 
characters  of  his  generation,  who  probably  centred 
in  himself  more  admiration  than  any  man  in  his 
rank  or  in  any  rank.     She  had  every  prospect  of 


LAST  YEARS  369 

becoming  the  Consort  of  the  Emperor — an  abso- 
lute emperor — of  the  greatest  of  the  Continental 
Powers.  She  had  every  hope  that  she  would  share 
fully  in  his  illustrious  position,  and  in  no  small  de- 
gree in  the  powers  that  he  wielded.  This  was  be- 
fore her  for  nearly  thirty  years,  and  in  that  time 
she  had  all  the  enjoyments  which  were  derived  from 
her  own  great  abilities,  her  own  splendid  artistic 
talents,  and  from  the  powers  which  she  exercised 
over  the  artistic,  aesthetic,  and  intellectual  life  of 
Germany.  She  occupied  an  unexampled  position. 
Then  suddenly  came  the  blow,  first  on  her  husband 
and  then  on  herself.  By  that  fell  disease — which 
probably  is  the  most  formidable  of  all  to  which  flesh 
is  heir — her  dream  of  happiness,  of  usefulness,  and 
glory  was  suddenly  cut  short.  The  blow,  in  strik- 
ing her  husband,  struck  herself  in  even  greater  de- 
gree; and  she  felt — she  could  not  but  feel — ^how 
deeply  she  shared  in  all  the  disappointments,  all 
the  sufferings,  that  attached  themselves  to  his  his- 
tory. When  he  had  been  Emperor  only  a  few 
weeks,  he  died,  and  then  she  spent  her  life  in  retire- 
ment. Her  health  failed,  and  she,  too,  fell  under 
the  same  blow,  passing  through  years  of  suffering, 
with  the  sympathy  of  all  connected  with  her  and  all 
those  who  knew  her.  She  was  deeply  valued  in 
this  country  by  those  who  knew  her,  and  they  were 
very  many.  She  had  an  artistic  and  intellectual 
charm  of  no  common  order;  she  spread  her  power 
over  all  who  came  within  her  reach ;  and  her  gradual 


870      THE  EMPRESS  FREDERICK 

disappearance  from  the  scene  was  watched  with  the 
deepest  sorrow  and  sj^mpathy  by  numbers  in  her 
own  country  and  in  this." 

The  motion  was  seconded  on  behalf  of  the  Op- 
position by  Lord  Spencer,  who,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, was  a  near  kinsman  of  that  Lady  Lyttelton 
to  whom  was  entrusted  the  charge  of  the  Empress's 
early  childhood: 

"Her  Imperial  Majesty  had  no  ordinary  charac- 
ter. Brought  up  with  the  greatest  care  and  solici- 
tude by  her  Royal  and  devoted  parents,  she  early 
and  ever  afterwards  showed  the  highest  accomplish- 
ments, not  only  in  art  but  in  literature.  She  was 
herself  an  artist  of  no  small  merit,  and  her  power 
of  criticism  and  influence  in  art  was  even  of  a  higher 
order.  In  this  age,  which  had  been  so  remarkable 
for  the  enormous  number  of  persons  who  have 
joined  in  endeavours  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of 
the  human  race,  whether  in  peace  or  in  war,  I  ven- 
ture to  think  that  no  one  stands  in  a  higher  position 
than  the  Empress  Frederick  of  Germany.  Dur- 
ing those  wars,  in  which  her  illustrious  husband 
plaj^ed  such  a  splendid  part,  she  exerted  herself  to 
do  all  she  could  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the 
wounded,  and  she  had  ever  in  peace  used  her  en- 
deavours to  promote  the  same  objects  among  the 
suffering  poor  of  her  country.  No  one,  I  am  sure, 
will  be  remembered  in  the  future  with  more  affec- 
tion and  devotion  on  this  account  than  her  Majesty. 
She  was  always  sympathetic  and  energetic  with 


LAST  YEARS  371 

regard  to  other  matters.  There  was  nothing  which 
stirred  her  sympathies  or  energies  more  than  the 
education  and  improvement  of  her  own  sex.  She 
did  much  in  this  respect  in  her  adopted  country; 
but  we  cannot  consider  her  life  without  remember- 
ing the  beautiful  simplicity  and  earnestness  of  it. 
She  was  devoted  to  duty,  and  although  she  suffered 
intensely  during  her  life  when  her  noble  husband' 
was  afflicted  with  the  terrible  disease  which  took 
him  off,  and  during  the  sad  years  in  which  the  same 
malady  afflicted  her,  she  always  showed  a  patient 
endurance  which  will  remain  an  example  for  all 
mankind.  I  cannot  but  refer  to  her  great  charm  in 
private  as  well  as  in  public  life.  It  so  happened 
that  very  early  in  my  life,  before  she  was  married, 
she  honoured  me  with  her  acquaintance.  It  was 
only  on  rare  occasions  I  had  the  privilege  of  con- 
tinuing that  acquaintance,  but  I  have  from  time  to 
time  within  the  last  few  years  seen  her  Majesty, 
and  I  shall  always  recall,  as  one  of  the  most  delight- 
ful recollections  of  my  life,  the  ch?irm  and  influ- 
ence of  her  conversation." 


INDEX 


Abeken,  Herr,  243 

Aberdeen,  Lord,  48 

Adelaide,  Queen  Dowager,  3,  28 

Albert,  Prince,  1,  2,  4,  5,  7,  8,  9; 
his  children's  affeciJon,  11,  12, 
209;  Exhibition  of  1851,  16,  17; 
view  of  Grerman  politics,  26,  27, 
37,  38,  46,  47,  53,  113,  122,  134- 
131,  136,  138,  139,  162,  165,  166; 
training  of  the  Princess  Rojal, 
32-35;  her  betrothal,  36-38,  41, 
45-50;  and  marriage,  60^8; 
letters  to  his  daughter,  71,  72, 
74-76,  80,  81,  87-89,  103,  105- 
107,  113,  114,  115,  117,  118,  124, 
127-132,  135,  138,  148;  visits 
to  his  daughter,  119,  122;  ac- 
quaintance with  Morier,  155; 
first  meeting  with  Bismarck, 
162;  theory  of  monarchy,  127- 
130;  narrow  escape,  120;  death, 
149-151,  153 

Alcott,  Miss,  14 

Alexander  of  Bulgaria,  Prince, 
310,  313 

Alexander  I,  the  Tsar;  Alex- 
ander II,  22,  263,  267,  278 

Alexandra,  Queen,  108,  109,  177, 
263 

Alice,  Princess  (Grand  Duchess 
of  Hesse),  4,  6,  11,  12,  48,  60, 
62,  106,  116,  131;  wedding,  154, 
197,  205,  212,  214,  222,  223,  233, 
236,  237;  death,  273,  323,  324 

Althorp,  Lord,  6,  8 

Ampthill,  Lord  and  Lady,  252, 
284,  285,  286,  338 

Anderson,  Mrs.,  50 

Angeli,  Von,  251,  256,  264 

Arnold,  Matthew,  281-284 

Augusta,  German  Empress,  17, 
19,  25,  27,  39,  60,  77,  78,  154, 
156,  157,  185,  214,  228,  230,  233, 
246,  267,  305;  death,  326,  327, 
328,  353 

Augustenburg,  Duke  Christian  of 
Sonderburg-,  179 

373 


Augustenburg,  Hereditary  Prince 
Frederick  of  Sonderburg-,  180- 
183,  210,  211,  275 

Austria,  Emperor  Francis  Jo- 
seph, 174,  197,  211,  280 

Babelsbeeo,  90,  92,  96,  109,  110 

Bacourt,  Monsieur  de,  78 

Baden,  Prince  Regent  of,  38 

Ballardin,  M.,  306 

Barclay  &  Perkins's  draymen,  68 

Battenberg  marriage,  the,  306, 
309,  312 

Bavaria,  King  of,  228,  241 

Bazaine,  Marshal,  228,  241,  317 

Beatrice,  Princess  (Princess 
Henry  of  Battenberg),  118,  356 

Begas,  251 

Benedek,  218 

Benedetti,  230 

Bergmann,  Prof.,  289 

Bernhard  of  Saxe-Meiningen, 
Prince,  266,  267 

Bernhardi,  Theodor  von,  157,  188 

Bismarck,  Prince,  opinion  of  the 
English  marriage,  39;  relations 
witii  Crown  Princess,  152,  153, 
162-167,  256,  258,  275,  285,  286; 
relations  with  Morier,  157,  207; 
accession  to  oflSce,  159,  166; 
Dantzig  incident,  168,  169;  re- 
lations with  Crown  Prince,  175, 
285,  286;  policy  on  Sches- 
wig-Holstein  question,  182,  185, 
210-211;  attitude  to  royal  per- 
sonages, 210;  Austrian  war, 
210-212,  217-221 ;  visit  to  Paris, 
223;  at  a  royal  christening, 
228;  Franco-German  war,  228- 
230,  239-240,  245,  248;  the  Im- 
perial Dignity,  241,  242,  255; 
"British  petticoats,"  256-258; 
and  Hinzpeter,  261,  267;  and 
the  Regency  of  the  Crown 
Prince,  267-271,  283,  284;  and 
the  Crown  Prince's  illness,  289, 
290;  relations  with  the  Emperor 


374 


INDEX 


and    Empress    Frederick,   SOS- 
SOT,  308-312,  313-319,  321-326, 

353,  360,  361;  fall,  327,  328 
Bleibtreu,  251 

Bloomfield,  Lady,  39,  and  Lord, 

74,  136 
Blumenthal,  Field-Marshal,  217 
Bornstedt,  country  life  at.  111 
Botticher,  303 
Bouguereau,  M.,  333 
Boyd  Carpenter,  Bishop,  66,  353, 

354,  364,  365 

Briihl,  Countess  Hedwig,  189 
Brunnemann,     Privy     Councillor, 

97 
Brunnow,  87 
Buccleuch,  Duke  of,  66 
Buchanan,  Mr.,  45 
Bucher,  238,  266 
Bunsen,  Baron,  27,  152 
Bunsen,  Mme.,  25 
Busch,    238,    266,   275,    306,    308, 

319 

Caxnixg,  Lord,  47 

Carlyle,  110,  160,  360 

Charles    Anthony    of    Hohenzol- 

lem.  Prince,  97 
Charles  of  Prussia,  Prince,  279, 

280 
Charles  of  Prussia,  Princess,  79 
Charles  of  Roumania,  Prince  and 

Princess,  214,  265,  277 
Charlier,  Mme.,  10 
Charlotte,  Princess,  1 
Charlotte,  Princess   (daughter  of 

the     Empress),     117,    265-267, 

277 
Christian  IX  of  Denmark,  King, 

180,  188 
Churchill,  Lord  Randolph,  272 
Clarendon,   Lord,   30,  34,  42,  93, 

125,  143,  144,  145,  147,  156,  252 
Cobden,  45,  69 
Coburgers,  the,  174,  185 
Colenso,  Bishop,  200 
Connaught,  Duke  of,  106,  267 
Consort,      Prince.      See     Albert, 

Prince 
"  Court  Circular,"  oflScial,  8 
Craven,  Mrs.  Augustus,  302 
Craven,  Mrs.  Dacre,  249 

Daxtzig  incident,  the,  167-170 
Darwin,  Charles,  199 
Delane,  John,  147 


Delbriick,  Prof.,  274 
De  Ros,  Captan,  103 
Deroulede,  Paul,  337 
Detaille,  M.,  333 
Deutsche  Revue,  352 
Deutsche  Rundschau,  316 
Devonshire,    Louise    Duchess    of, 

95 
Dino,  Duchesse  de,  78 
Droysen,  J.  G.,  34 
Duff,  Sir  M.  E.  Grant,  356 
Duncker,  Frau,  158 
Duncker,    Herr    Max,    136,    153, 

158,  182,  184,  186 

Edinburgh,  Duke  of,  63,  64,  69, 

263 
Edward    VII,    King,    6,    12,    14, 

19,  20,  62-64,  69,  106,  109,  149, 

159,  177,  260,  263,  280,  330,  344, 
358,  363,  364 

Eliot,  George,  273 

Elizabeth,  Landgravine,  the,  329, 

351 
Elizabeth  of  Prussia,  Queen,  134, 

135 
Ernest  of  Hanover,  King,  73 
Ernest      of      Saxe-Coburg      and 

Gotha,  Duke,  3,  38,  41,  85,  174, 

307,  322 
Eugenie,  Empress,  19,  20,  43,  44, 

193,  222 
Exhibition,  of  1851,  15,  16,  17;  of 

1862,  154;  of  1867  (Paris),  222 

Faraday,  92 

Faucit,  Helen,  61 

Fitzmayer,  Colonel,  45 

Frankfort  Congress,  174 

Frederick     Charles      of      Hesse, 
Prince,  247 

Frederick    Charles     of    Prussia, 
Prince,  186,  217 

Frederick,   Grand   Duke  of   Ba- 
den, 181 

Frederick,     Prince     of     Nether- 
lands, 266 

Frederick,  the  Emperor — 

As  Prince  Frederick  William 
of  Prussia — First  visit  to  Eng- 
land, 15-18,  25;  betrothal,  2&- 
32,  39,  43;  visits  England 
again,  51;  marriage,  61-70;  ad- 
miration of  England,  85;  pride 
in  his  eldest  son,  102,  103,  107, 
108;  New  Palace  at  Potsdam, 


INDEX 


375 


109-111;  country  life  at  Bom- 
stedt.  111,  112;  military  pro- 
motions, 112,  116,  166;  hope 
of  the   Junkers,   116 

As  Crown  Prince — Death  of 
King  Frederick  William  IV, 
133-135;  his  father's  corona- 
tion, 139-146;  death  of  his  fa- 
ther-in-law, 149-152;  visits  to 
England,  154,  175,  292,  293; 
to  Italy,  159,  224,  287;  to 
the  East,  225;  to  Paris,  225; 
the  Dantzig  incident,  167-169; 
relations  with  Bismarck,  167, 
173,  175,  182,  210,  211,  219- 
222,  239,  248,  268-272,  285, 
286;  admiration  of  England, 
171;  Schleswig-Holstein  ques- 
tion, 180-183;  in  the  Danish 
War,  184-188;  hatred  of  war, 
186,  221,  236;  work  for  soldiers 
and  their  families,  186,  222, 
235,  240;  family  life,  188-197, 
207-209,  256;  the  Austrian 
War,  213-215,  217-221;  free- 
masonry, 106,  266;  the  Franco- 
German  War,  229,  235-240; 
the  Imperial  Dignity,  242,  243; 
regency,  267-271 ;  illnesses, 
255,  287-298;  silver  wedding, 
279-282 

As  Emperor — Accession,  299, 
300;  journey  to  Berlin,  300; 
State  business,  301-302;  rela- 
tions with  Bismarck,  302-305, 
309-314;  monetary  position, 
306-308;  death,  314;  Freytag's 
reminiscences,  321-325 
Frederick,  the  Empress,  Physical 
descriptions  of,  58,  59,  160,  161, 
362 

As  Princess  Royal — Birth,  1, 
2;  christening,  3,  4;  education 
and  childhood,  6-20 ;  first  meet- 
ing with  her  husband,  15-19; 
visit  to  Paris,  19,  20;  betrothal, 
29-31 ;  training  by  her  father, 
33-35;  confirmation,  47-49;  an 
accident,  50;  marriage,  58-70; 
arrival  in  Berlin,  74;  reception, 
75-83;  the  Old  Schloss,  83,  84; 
influence  of  and  on  her  hus- 
band, 85;  conditions  at  the 
Prussian  Court,  86;  Babels- 
berg,  90;  social  preferences,  91, 
92;    visits  of  her  parents,  92- 


97;  new  residence  in  Berlin, 
98-99;  birth  of  Prince  WUham, 
100-114;  New  Palace  at  Pots- 
dam, 109-111;  country  life  at 
Bornstedt,  111,  112;  birth  of 
Princess  Charlotte,  116,  117; 
interest  in  politics,  86,  87,  98; 
paper  on  ministerial  responsi- 
bility, 126,  127;  nursery  man- 
agement, 123 

As  Crown  Princess — Descrip- 
tion of  death  of  King  of  Prus- 
sia, 133-135;  anniversary  of 
marriage,  136;  coronation  of 
her  fatther-in-law,  description, 
139-147;  colonel  of  Hussar 
Regiment,  146,  198,  265;  po- 
litical views,  148,  157,  158,  175, 
185,  187,  223,  284;  death  of  her 
father  149-153;  relations  with 
Bismarck,  152,  162-165,  166, 
169-172,  184,  185,  211,  212,  238, 
239,  266,  267,  275,  285,  286;  love 
of  England,  188;  visits  to  Eng- 
land, 153,  154,  158,  175,  267, 
272,  273,  292,  293;  love  of 
France,  245,  246;  birth  of 
Prince  Henry,  155;  position  in 
Prussia,  155,  156;  relations 
with  her  husband,  157-159,  168, 
169-172,  196,  197,  258,  270;  vis- 
its to  Italy,  159,  275,  276;  fa- 
vourite newspapers,  173;  pa- 
triotism, 165,  175,  184,  185,  238, 
239,  244,  267;  popularity,   173, 

198,  247;  Schleswig-Holstein 
question,  178-182;  work  for 
army  and  other  nursing,  187, 
233-235,  248,  249;  family  life, 
188-197,  207-209,  224,  225,  255, 
256;  artistic  tastes,  188-190, 
192,  193,  251,  252,  256,  264,  277, 
278,  280;  musical  tastes,  189, 
190,  191,  192,  195,  198;  literary 
tastes,  189,  190,  192,  195,  199; 
as  botanist,  190;  interest  in  sci- 
ence, 251;  pistol-shooting,  190; 
education  of  children,  194, 
195,  208,  209,  259-261;  social 
preferences,  198,  199,  251,  252, 
253,     273;     religious     position, 

199,  204,  253.  978;  art  and  in- 
dustry, 205,  206,  223;  bereave- 
ments, 214,  216,  273,  274,  275; 
work  for  soldiers  and  their 
families,    222,    231,    233,    234, 


376 


INDEX 


235;  visits  to  Paris,  226,  281; 
work  for  education,  253-355, 
280,  283,  293;  visit  to  Russia, 
263;  aflfection  for  the  old  Em- 
peror, 286;  her  husband's  Itist 
illness,  287-298 

As  Empress,  299-314;  rela- 
tions with  Bismarck,  303-305; 
influence  over  her  husband, 
303,  307,  308,  309-313;  the  Bat- 
tenberg  marriage,  309-313;  her 
first  and  last  Court,  313;  death 
of  the  Emperor,  314. 

As  Dowager  Empress — Re- 
lations    with     Bismarck,     315- 

318,  322,  323,  353,  361;  rela- 
tions with  her  son,  the  Em- 
peror William  II,  315-318,  329, 
332;  comparison  with  him,  318- 
321;  planning  of  Fredericks- 
hof,  329-332;  life  there,  340- 
366;  patriotism,  323,  324,  356, 
357;  visit  to  Paris,  332-337; 
death  of  Empress  Augusta, 
326,  327,  332;  the  anonymous 
letter  scandal,  338,  339;  col- 
lections, 341-343;  reading,  343, 
344;  gardening,  344,  345;  res- 
toration work,  345,  346;  per- 
sonal tastes,  346-348;  phi- 
lanthropy, 348 ;  character 
sketches,  348-850,  354,  358- 
361;  views  on  royal  biography, 
352,  353;  visits  to  England, 
354;  artistic  tastes,  354,  355; 
musical  tastes,  357,  358;  re- 
ligious position,  352,  353,  366, 
367;  last  illness,  361-365; 
death  and  funeral,  366-368; 
tributes  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  368-371 

Frederick  the  Great,  King  of 
Prussia,  79,  109,  110,  192,  228, 
262,  341 

Frederick  VII  of  Denmark, 
King,   176,   179 

Frederick  William  III,  King  of 
Prussia,  57,  83,  98,  166,  192 

Frederick  William  IV,  King  of 
Prussia,  18,  27,  28,  29,  30,  31, 
36,  38,  55,  74,  83,  92,  93,  97,  98; 
death,  133-135;  political  testa- 
ment,   141-143,    157,    192,    282, 

319,  329,  352 
Freemasonry,  106,  266. 
Freytag,  121,  166,  236,  321,  325. 


Friedberg,   Dr.,  971 
Froude,  160,  273 

Gaujeka,  Duchess   of,  330 
Garter,  Order  of  the,  67 
Geffcken,  Dr.,  170,  316 
Geibel,  192 
George  of   Hanover,  King,   230, 

221 
Gerhardt,  289 

Gerlach,  General,  28,  S9,  39 
Germany  in  1858,  53-57 
Gerth,  sculptor,  368 
Gloucester,  Duchess  of,  3,  110 
Godet,  Pastor,  51,  151,  297 
Goethe,  77,  189,  192 
Gontaut  Biron,  M.  de,  245,  3i6 
Gontaut,  Duchesse  de,  246 
Goschen,         Mr.         (afterwards 

Lord),  272. 
Gotha,     Dowager     Duchess     of 

Saxe-Coburg  and,  4,  52,  113 
Gower,   Lord    Ronald,    192,    193, 

228 
Granville,  Lord,  22,  47,  93,   144, 

174,  227,  230,  257,  285,  293 
Orenzboten,  190 

Hahdenbuhg,  55 
Hagen,  Prof.,  251 
Heine,  192 

Henry   of   Prussia,   Prince,   156, 
209,    259,    260,    261,    266,  275, 

277,  288,  313 
Hertel,  painter,  264 
Hildyard,  Miss,  50 
Hintze,  Prof.,  141,  142 
Hinzpeter,  Dr.,   123,  207,  261 
Hobbs,  Mrs.,  nurse,  121,  122 
Hodel,  267,  270 
HoflFmann,  92,  251,  283 
Hohenlohe,  Prince,  237,  253,  269, 

278,  281,  282,  302,  304,  310,  311, 
328 

Hohenlohe-Langenburg,    Princess 

of,  60,  75 
Howard,  Cardinal,  276 
Humbert,      Prince      (afterwards 

King  of  Italy),  224,  287,  300 
Huxley,  199 

Ihke,  Herr,  331 
Irene    of    Hesse,    Princess,    288, 
309,  313 

Keelet,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  61 


INDEX 


377 


Kent,  Duchess  of,  4,  30,  52,  63, 

122;  death  of,  137 
Kinglake,  273 
Kohn,  Baron,  307 
Kreuz  Zeitung,  130 
Kruger,  President,  356 

Lees,  Miss,  249 

Leiningen,  Prince,  52 

Leo  XIII,  Pope,  271 

Leopold  I,  King  of  the  Belgians, 

3,  30,  43,  47,  48,  49,  60,  63,  64, 

102,  103,  149,  307 
Leopold,    Prince    of    Hohenzol- 

lern-Sigmaringen,  227 
Letze,  Fraulein,  254 
Loftus,  Lord  Augustus,  229,  230 
Louis,   Prince    (Grand   Duke    of 

Hesse),  117,  131,  154,  213,  222, 

225,  237 
Louis  of  Battenberg,  Prince,  310 
Louise,  Queen  of  Prussia,  38,  62, 

74,  98,  142,  192 
Louise      of      Prussia,      Princess 

(Grand    Duchess    of    Baden), 

15,  16,  38,  39,  122 
Lutteroth,  painter,  264 
LyeU,  Sir  Charles,  199,  200 
Lyons,  Lord,  281 
Lyttelton,  Sarah,  Lady,  6-14,  17, 

65,  114  370 
Lytton,  Lord  and  Lady,  333 

Macattlay,   360 

Macdonald    incident,     the,    119- 

121,  124,  137,  138 
Macdonell,  Lady,  215 
Mackenzie,  Sir  Morell,  291,  294, 

300 
Magdeburg  Cathedral,  73 
Malakoff,  Duke  of,  87 
Malet,  Sir  Edward,  312 
Malmesbury,  Lord,  93 
Manchester,    Duchess    of    (Lou- 
ise), Q5 
Manteuffel,  Baron,  54,  56,  94,  97, 

282 
Margaret,  Princess  (daughter  of 

the  Empress),  247,  332 
Margherita,  Queen  of  Italy,  247, 

287 
Marie    of    Roumania,    Princess, 

216 
Martin,  Dr.,  100 
Martin,  Sir  Theodore,  26,  46,  94, 

126 


Mary  of  Cambridge,  Princess 
(Duchess  of  Teck),  48,  68,  153 

Mecklenburg,  Grand  Duchess  of, 
108 

Melbourne,  Lord,  3,  7,  23 

Millet,  J,  F.,  14 

Monarchy  in  England,  2 

Moltke,  43,  51,  238,  256 

Morier,  Sir  Robert,  155,  156,  157, 
167,  168,  172,  206,  207,  317 

Motley,  J.  L.,  160,   161 

Moustier,  87 

Napier  of  Magdala,  Lord,  295 
Napoleon,      Emperor      of      the 

French,    19,    31,    42,    166,    222, 

225,  230,  231,  295 
National-zeitung ,  173 
Neale,   Countess   Pauline,  79 
Nigrhtingale,     Florence,    19,    187, 

249 
Nippold,  Prof.,  327,  348-353 
Nobeling,  267,  270,  272 

"  Old  "  Royal  Family,  the,  1,  23,' 

63 
Ollivier,  M.,  226 
Oscar,  painter,  251 

Paget,  Sir  Augustus,  58,  108 
Paget,  Walpurga  Lady,  58,  108, 

276 
Palmerston,  Lord,  30,  47,  63,  120, 

137,  147,  177,  184 
Perrj^  Mr.,  18,  32 
Phelps,  the  actor,  61 
Playfair,  Dr.  Lyon,  273 
Poiisonby,  Mrs.  273 
Poschinger,  Margaretha  Ton,  255 
Putbus,  Prince,  238 
Putlitz,  Frau,  207^09 
Putlitz,  Gustav,  102,  188,  196 
Puttkamer  incident,  the,  313 

Radziwili.,  Princess  Elise,  16 
Raglan,  Lord,   103-105 
Ranke,  Prof.,  353 
Redern,  Count,  383 
Regnault,  Henri,  334,  335 
Reinhold,  sculptor,  251 
Reiss,  Mr.,  331 
Renan,  200,  336 
Ripon,  Lord  and  Lady,  273 
Roggenbach,  Baron,  316 
Roon,  Von,  240 
Rmnbold,  Sir  Horace,  31T 


378 


INDEX 


Russell,  Lord  Arthur,  337 
Russell,  Lord  John,  3,  120 
Russell,  Lord  Odo.  See  Ampthill 
Russell,  Sir.  W.  H.,  228 

Salisbury,  Lord   and  Lady,  267, 

269,  368 
Saturday  Review,  124 
Saxe-Meiningen,  Hereditary 

Princess  of,   117 
Saxony,  King  of,  241 
Schellbach,  Prof.,  91 
Schleinitz,   Baron,   124,   138 
Schleswig-Holstein  Duchies,  137; 

history   of,   177-181;   the  war, 

183-188. 
Seckendorff,  Count,  295 
Sigismund,   Prince    (Son    of  the 

Emperor  Frederick),  196,  205, 

209,  214-516,  224,  225,  355 
Smsdley,  G.  W.,  journalist,  358, 

360,  361 
Sophia,      Princess      (afterwards 

Queen   of  the    Hellenes),  227, 

228,  245 
Spencer,  Lord,  370 
Stanley,  Dean,  341 
Stanley  of  Alderley,  Lord,  174 
Steibel,  Dr,  331 
Stein,  55,  56 
Stockmar,   Baron,   1,   10,  30,  32, 

33,    72,   81-82,   88,   94,    95,    97, 

101,    108,    113,    122,    126,    135, 

137,  152,  156 

Stockmar,  Baron  Ernest,  72,  156, 

159,  169,  170 
Stolberg,  Prince,  307 
Story,  Mr.,  276 
Strauss,  200 
Sumner,  Archbishop,  47 
Sussex,  Duke  of,  3 

Teignmouth-Shore,  Canon,  365, 

366 
Tenniel,  Sir  John,  327 
Times,  The,  36,  69,  70,  123,  124, 

138,  147,  169,  170,  173,  230 
Titian,  264 

Thiers,  245 
Thomas,  G.  H.,  143 
Tiirr,  General,  231 

Uphtjes,  sculptor,  354,  355 

Victoria  of  Hesse,  Princess,  309 
Victoria,    Princess,    daughter    of 


Empress  Frederick,  213,  214, 
309-312,  332 

Victoria,  Princess  of  Schleswig- 
Holstein-Augustenburg,   277 

Victoria,  Queen,  1,  2,  3;  educa- 
tion of  her  children,  4^6,  8,  10; 
Exhibition  of  1851,  16,  17; 
marriages  of  her  children,  24, 
25;  Princess  Royal's  betrothal, 
29-31,  36,  37,  39,  42-44,  46-49; 
a  caricature,  28;  birth  of  first 
grandchild,  100-103;  sees  him 
,for  first  time,  121-123;  de- 
scription of  the  New  Palace, 
109;  birth  of  Princess  Char- 
lotte, 116,  117;  death  of  Prince 
Consort,  149-151;  relations 
with  Morier,  172,  207;  rela- 
tions with  Bismarck,  184,  185, 
311,  312;  attitude  in  Danish 
War,  177,  184,  185;  Austrian 
War,  213;  Franco-German 
War,  229,  230,  231;  interven- 
tion on  behalf  of  France,  256, 
257;  visit  to  the  Emperor 
Frederick,  311,  312;  the  Bat- 
tenberg  marriage,  310,  311; 
death,   362 

Virchow,  Prof.,  292 

Volkszeitunff,  173 

Vossische  Zeitung,  363 

Wage,  poet,  12 

Waddington,  M.,  337,  356,  357 

Waddington,   Mme.,   356,  357 

Wagener,  289 

Wagner,  357 

Waldemar,  Prince  (son  of  Em- 
press Frederick),  224,  274,  341 

Walewski,  87 

Wangenheim,  von,  87 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  3 

Werner,  Anton  von,  painter,  251, 
264 

Westmorland,  Priscilla  Lady, 
107 

Wilberforce,  Bishop,  47 

Wilberg,   painter,   264 

William  I,  German  Emperor;  as 
Prince  of  Prussia,  16,  17,  25, 
26,  37,  39,  60,  65,  93;  regency, 
97,  98,  102,  115,  116,  201;  suc- 
cession as  King  William  I,  133, 
134,  137;  coronation,  139-141, 
143,  147,  148,  157,  165,  166- 
169,    171,    172,    182,    183,    211, 


INDEX 


370 


218-220,  223;  Emperor,  327, 
228,  230,  234,  235,  241-243,  256, 
257 ;  attempted  assassinations, 
267-272;  failing  health,  285- 
288,  294;  death,  297,  298,  306, 
307;  character,  319,  320,  353 
William  II,  Grerman  Emperor, 
birth  and  christening,  100-107; 
and  Queen  Victoria,  121-123, 
141,  142,  194,  195,  207,  208, 
209;    education,    259-262,    265, 


266;  betrothal  and  marriage, 
277;  accession,  315-318;  com- 
parison with  his  mother,  318- 
321;  relations  with  his  mother, 
329,  332,  356,  364,  365 

Wittenberg,  73 

Wodehouse,  Lady,  22 

Wrangel,  Field-Marshal  von,  73, 
79,  94,  96,   100,  183,  228 

Wurtemberg,  King  of,  228 


Date  r 


■R-   000 


